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
