FINALIST FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING 2022 THE TIMES BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2021 'A
complex story which Tooze tells with clarity and verve... The world is unlikely to be treated
to a better account of the economics of the pandemic' The Times From the author of Crashed
comes a gripping short history of how Covid-19 ravaged the global economy and where it leaves
us now When the news first began to trickle out of China about a new virus in December 2019
risk-averse financial markets were alert to its potential for disruption. Yet they could never
have predicted the total economic collapse that would follow in COVID-19's wake as stock
markets fell faster and harder than at any time since 1929 currencies across the world plunged
investors panicked and even gold was sold. In a matter of weeks the world's economy was
brought to an abrupt halt by governments trying to contain a spiralling public health
catastrophe. Flights were grounded supply chains broken industries from tourism to oil to
hospitality collapsed overnight leaving hundreds of millions of people unemployed. Central
banks responded with unprecedented interventions just to keep their economies on life-support.
For the first time since the second world war the entire global economic system contracted.
This book tells the story of that shutdown. We do not yet know how this story ends or what new
world we will find on the other side. In this fast-paced compelling and at times shocking
analysis Adam Tooze surveys the wreckage and looks at where we might be headed next. 'A
seriously impressive book both endlessly quotable and rigorously analytical' Oliver Bullough
The Guardian
