This book's great service is that it challenges us to consider the ways in which our
institutions and systems and the assumptions positions and divisions that undergird them
leave us ill prepared for the next crisis.-Robert Rubin The New York Times Book Review Deftly
weaving finance politics business and the global human experience into one tight narrative
a tour-de-force account of 2020 the year that changed everything--from the acclaimed author of
Crashed. The shocks of 2020 have been great and small disrupting the world economy
international relations and the daily lives of virtually everyone on the planet. Never before
has the entire world economy contracted by 20 percent in a matter of weeks nor in the historic
record of modern capitalism has there been a moment in which 95 percent of the world's
economies were suffering all at the same time. Across the world hundreds of millions have lost
their jobs. And over it all looms the specter of pandemic and death. Adam Tooze whose last
book was universally lauded for guiding us coherently through the chaos of the 2008 crash now
brings his bravura analytical and narrative skills to a panoramic and synthetic overview of our
current crisis. By focusing on finance and business he sets the pandemic story in a frame that
casts a sobering new light on how unprepared the world was to fight the crisis and how deep
the ruptures in our way of living and doing business are. The virus has attacked the economy
with as much ferocity as it has our health and there is no vaccine arriving to address that.
Tooze's special gift is to show how social organization political interests and economic
policy interact with devastating human consequences from your local hospital to the World
Bank. He moves fluidly from the impact of currency fluctuations to the decimation of
institutions--such as health-care systems schools and social services--in the name of
efficiency. He starkly analyzes what happened when the pandemic collided with domestic politics
(China's party conferences the American elections) what the unintended consequences of the
vaccine race might be and the role climate change played in the pandemic. Finally he proves
how no unilateral declaration of 'independence or isolation can extricate any modern country
from the global web of travel goods services and finance.
