¡°Roubini cuts to the real problems like a hot knife through butter, with a clarity of mind that is rare among economists. I have never seen a more lucid and nuanced account of our financial condition. Not only will the reader be better off after reading this book, but the world will be a better place when central bankers absorb its message."
¡ªNassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan and Skin in the Game
¡°No economist is better able to curdle the reader's blood than Nouriel Roubini. What makes his views significant however is not that they are scary, but that they generally prove to be true. With this book, alas, he has surpassed even his high standards: the ten megathreats he details are as scary as they are plausible. Forewarned is forearmed. Read and pay attention."¡ªMartin Wolf, Chief Economics Commentator, the Financial Times
¡°From the economics guru who predicted the 2008 crash, MegaThreats breaks down the most dangerous risks threatening global peace and prosperity in the coming decades. Nouriel offers a sobering analysis of the challenges we¡¯ll face to avert the worst, as each crisis reinforces the others and hinders our ability to respond to all of them. The choice is clear: either we overcome deep-rooted political and geopolitical barriers to mount an adequate collective response (my preference!), or we sleepwalk into a new era of chaos and upheaval. A timely and compelling read, MegaThreats is a wake-up call for humanity.¡±
¡ªIan Bremmer, President of Eurasia Group and author of The Power of Crisis
¡°A tour de force drawing on economics, finance, history, international relations, and Nouriel Roubini¡¯s own rich personal experiences. This clever and timely analysis does more than render accessible complex and crucial concepts that are both in our present and future. It also powerfully illustrates how the combination of flawed human judgment, faulty policies, and a collective disregard of natural constraints now confronts us with perils whose reach goes well beyond just our generation. Ignore this book at your own peril.¡±¡ªMohamed A. El-Erian, author of New York Times bestsellers The Only Game in Town and When Markets Collide
"The economist who predicted the 2008 recession is looking around the corner to anticipate the next major crises. Dr. Doom isn¡¯t here to scare you¡ªhis goal is to prepare you. The better you are at anticipating problems, the better positioned you become to prevent them and solve them.¡±¡ªAdam Grant
¡°Calm, clear-headed and possibly prescient, MegaThreats combines important historical analogies, broad-ranging discussion of current trends, and insightful economic analysis to produce a bracing assessment of long-term risks to the global economy. Dark, perhaps, but brilliant, for sure.¡±
¡ªKenneth Rogoff, co-author of This Time is Different
"If recent history has taught us one thing, it is that Black Swan events happen¡ªand more frequently than we expect. Nouriel Roubini describes the most threatening swans and how ...we can avoid being pecked to death. Technology offers solutions but, as Nouriel warns, technology without political will buys us nothing. This is not an optimistic forecast, but it is a sobering and necessary one.¡±
¡ªBarry Eichengreen, George C. Pardee & Helen N. Pardee Chair and Distinguished Professor of Economics and Political Science, University of California, Berkeley
¡°[Roubini¡¯s] analysis of present-day trends, especially in economics, is well-informed and insightful, and will give readers much disquieting food for thought.¡±
¡ªPublishers Weekly
Chapter Page
Prologue 3
Part I Debt, Demographics, and Dangerous Policies
Chapter 1 The Mother of All Debt Crises 11
Chapter 2 Private and Public Failures 30
Chapter 3 The Demographic Time Bomb 47
Chapter 4 The Easy Money Trap and the Boom-Bust Cycle 59
Chapter 5 The Coming Great Stagflation 87
Part II Financial, Trade, Geopolitical, Technological, and Environmental Catastrophes
Chapter 6 Currency Meltdowns and Financial Instability 113
Chapter 7 The End of Globalization? 144
Chapter 8 The AI Threat 167
Chapter 9 The New Cold War 189
Chapter 10 An Uninhabitable Planet? 216
Part III Can This Disaster Be Averted?
Chapter 11 Dark Destiny 241
Chapter 12 A More "Utopian" Future? 261
Epilogue 269
Acknowledgments 275
Notes 279
Index 299