Two years ago, we convened a group of journalists and commentators from around the world and asked them to join a conversation about issues that mattered to us and to them. It was an experiment, and we were ready to close it down if nobody came to the party.

Happily, many, many people have visited and posted on the site. We would love to see the number grow larger, and we will soon launch more new features and blogs -- and, especially, new ways for readers to join in the discussion. But we're delighted to have created a virtual water cooler, at which people from all parts of the world can weigh in on the issues of the day.

A year from now, we hope this will be a site that realizes the Internet's opportunity to create a new kind of bottom-up journalism--gathering reports from many thousands of individuals around the world who can explain to us what's really happening--the surprising, exhilarating, heartbreaking experiences that stand behind the reports we call "the news." That's still a work in progress, but we're hoping....

For now, our thanks to the panelists who shaped this debate with their thoughtful commentaries each week from the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe and the U.S. Our special thanks to Chuck McLean and his team, who shaped each day's Global Power Barometer; to Amar Bakshi and Jack Fairweather, who experimented with new ways to tell the world's story; and to our new Washington Post bloggers, John Pomfret and Steve Mufson, whose posts help us see China and the energy market in new ways. To all the PostGlobal team, and to the many, many voices who've joined them each week, our thanks and Happy Birthday wishes.

--David Ignatius and Fareed Zakaria

The American economy might surprise us by the year-end. Many economists and businessmen believe that although the current slowdown could turn into a recession, a financial collapse is now highly unlikely. Bruce Kasman, the chief economist at JPMorgan, is an optimist. He believes that even though the economy has been hit by some big problems, it also has strengths that will encourage recovery. (American exports, which now account for most of the country’s economic growth, are booming.) But Kasman is a short-term optimist; he has a much gloomier view of the longer term.

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Barack Obama needs to give a speech about Iraq. Otherwise he will find himself in the unusual position of having being prescient about the war in 2002 and yet being overtaken by events in 2008. The most important reason to do this is not political. Iraq is fading in importance for the public and, to the extent that it matters as an electoral issue, most people agree with Obama's judgment that the war was not worth fighting.

The reason to lay out his approach to Iraq is that, were he elected, the war would be his biggest and most immediate problem. He will need to implement a serious policy on Iraq, one that is consistent with his long-held views but is also informed by the conditions on the ground today. This is what he should say:

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