Shutdown
How Covid Shook the World's Economy
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Narrated by:
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Simon Vance
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Adam Tooze
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By:
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Adam Tooze
About this listen
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.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2021 Adam Tooze (P)2021 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"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.... Whether we can overcome that incoherence and meet the challenges ahead while protecting the values at the heart of the American idea - freedom, pluralism, democracy - is the essential question posed by Shutdown." (The New York Times Book Review)
"A seriously impressive book, both endlessly quotable and rigorously analytical. Tooze synthesises a huge volume of information to argue that we must prepare for a new wave of crises or risk being sunk by them. Hopefully, governments everywhere will heed his warning.” (The Guardian)
"Offer insights and frameworks likely to be of enduring value.... To read Shutdown feels like sitting alongside the great professor while he feverishly collates an array of data and anecdotes, attempts to chronicle what is going on, his head fizzing with ideas about what it might all mean and where it might be leading." (Financial Times)
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Good review of crucial turning point in history
- By Philo on 11-22-16
By: Marc Levinson
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Dead Aid
- Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa
- By: Dambisa Moyo, Niall Ferguson - foreword
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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A national best-seller, Dead Aid unflinchingly confronts one of the greatest myths of our time: that billions of dollars in aid sent from wealthy countries to developing African nations has helped to reduce poverty and increase growth. In fact, poverty levels continue to escalate and growth rates have steadily declined - and millions continue to suffer. Debunking the current model of international aid promoted by both Hollywood celebrities and policy makers, Dambisa Moyo offers a bold new road map for financing the development of the world's poorest countries.
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Dangerous / Right Wing US view
- By David O'Donovan on 03-05-19
By: Dambisa Moyo, and others
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Russia's Crony Capitalism
- The Path from Market Economy to Kleptocracy
- By: Anders Aslund
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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This insightful study explores how the economic system Vladimir Putin has developed in Russia works to consolidate control over the country. By appointing his close associates as heads of state enterprises and by giving control of the FSB and the judiciary to his friends from the KGB, he has enriched his business friends from Saint Petersburg with preferential government deals. Thus, Putin has created a super wealthy and loyal plutocracy that owes its existence to authoritarianism.
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great book, so so narration
- By Rob on 05-20-19
By: Anders Aslund
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Globalization and Its Discontents
- By: Joseph E. Stiglitz
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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This powerful, unsettling book gives us a rare glimpse behind the closed doors of global financial institutions by the winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics. When it was first published, this national best-seller quickly became a touchstone in the globalization debate. Renowned economist and Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz had a ringside seat for most of the major economic events of the last decade, including stints as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and chief economist at the World Bank.
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Plea
- By Asma on 10-13-20
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A Crisis Wasted
- Barack Obama's Defining Decisions
- By: Reed Hundt
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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This book is the compelling story of President Obama’s domestic policy decisions made between September 2008 and his inauguration on January 20, 2009. Unlike all other presidents except Abraham Lincoln - who decided not to allow slavery to expand westward before he was sworn in - Barack Obama determined the fate of his presidency before he took office. The results of these fateful decisions led to Donald Trump taking his place eight years later. This book describes how and why these decisions were made, and discusses whether the outcomes could have been different.
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Somewhat complicated, not audiobook material
- By Mariana Nolasco on 09-20-20
By: Reed Hundt
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The End of Normal
- The Great Crisis and the Future of Growth
- By: James K. Galbraith
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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The years since the Great Crisis of 2008 have seen slow growth, high unemployment, falling home values, chronic deficits, a deepening disaster in Europe - and a stale argument between two false solutions, “austerity” on one side and “stimulus” on the other. Both sides and practically all analyses of the crisis so far take for granted that the economic growth from the early 1950s until 2000 - interrupted only by the troubled 1970s - represented a normal performance.
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Every Nation for Itself
- Winners and Losers in a G-Zero World
- By: Ian Bremmer
- Narrated by: Willis Sparks
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Forget the G-7 and the G-20; we are entering a leaderless "G- Zero" era- with profound implications for every country and corporation. The world power structure is facing a vacuum at the top. With the unifying urgency of the financial crisis behind us, the diverse political and economic values of the G-20 are curtailing the world's most powerful governments' ability to mediate growing global challenges. There is no viable alternative group to take its place.
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Well articulated and thought provoking
- By Mark on 08-09-12
By: Ian Bremmer
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The Death of Money
- The Coming Collapse of the International Monetary System
- By: James Rickards
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 13 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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The international monetary system has collapsed three times in the past hundred years, in 1914, 1939, and 1971. Each collapse was followed by a period of tumult: War, civil unrest, or significant damage to the stability of the global economy. Now James Rickards, the acclaimed author of Currency Wars, shows why another collapse is rapidly approaching - and why this time, nothing less than the institution of money itself is at risk.
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A good review of the global financial system
- By Jean on 04-22-14
By: James Rickards
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China's Economy
- What Everyone Needs to Know®
- By: Arthur R. Kroeber
- Narrated by: Paul Heitsch
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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China's Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know® is a concise introduction to the most astonishing economic growth story of the last three decades. In the 1980s, China was an impoverished backwater, struggling to escape the political turmoil and economic mismanagement of the Mao era. Today it is the world's second biggest economy, the largest manufacturing and trading nation, the consumer of half the world's steel and coal, the biggest source of international tourists, and one of the most influential investors in developing countries from southeast Asia to Africa to Latin America.
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An interesting insight
- By Cole Peters on 11-28-18
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How Are You Going to Pay for That?
- Smart Answers to the Dumbest Question in Politics
- By: Ryan Cooper
- Narrated by: Ryan Cooper
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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How Are You Going to Pay for That? is filled with engaging discussions and detailed strategies that policymakers and citizens alike can use to assail even the most entrenched lines of neoliberal logic and start to undo these long-held misconceptions. Equal parts economic theory, history, and political polemic, this is an essential roadmap for winning the key battles to come.
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Not horrible but not correct either
- By David on 03-20-23
By: Ryan Cooper
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And the Weak Suffer What They Must?
- Europe's Crisis and America's Economic Future
- By: Yanis Varoufakis
- Narrated by: Yanis Varoufakis, Leighton Pugh
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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In January 2015, Yanis Varoufakis, an economics professor teaching in Austin, Texas, was elected to the Greek parliament with more votes than any other member of parliament. He was appointed finance minister, and, in the whirlwind five months that followed, everything he had warned about was confirmed as the "troika" (the European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund, and European Commission) stonewalled his efforts to resolve Greece's economic crisis.
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interesting perspective
- By Jamila on 07-12-20
By: Yanis Varoufakis
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Fantasy Island
- Colonialism, Exploitation, and the Betrayal of Puerto Rico
- By: Ed Morales
- Narrated by: Sean Duffy
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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In Fantasy Island, Ed Morales traces how, over the years, Puerto Rico has served as a colonial satellite, a Cold War Caribbean showcase, a dumping ground for US manufactured goods, and a corporate tax shelter. He also shows how it has become a blank canvas for mercenary experiments in disaster capitalism on the frontlines of climate change, hamstrung by internal political corruption and the US federal government's prioritization of outside financial interests.
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Gringo Narrattion
- By shakira julia on 02-08-21
By: Ed Morales
What listeners say about Shutdown
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Bret Hoy
- 09-12-21
Powerful, Ominous, Global Context
This book is many things: It’s a grand narrative that explores the global financial system and it’s reaction to COVID. Brilliantly performed by Vance. It’s also an illuminating peek behind the curtain in a year where I felt like I tracked the neural pulses of the Economy more than ever before— this book taught me I hadn’t.
As with Tooze’s previous work, the detail can be overwhelming. But even being understood at its broadest, Shutdown makes itself worthy of your time. It tells the human story of failure and triumph, in context we can all still emotionally attach to. Further arguing for the timeliness of this book; we are amidst a turning point in history, and to even understand the moment for what it is, you need to widen your lens. Shutdown is essential to understanding the physics of global finance.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Mark McCandless
- 06-01-23
A needed look at the economic impact of Covid
Some parts of this book was a rehash of the multitude of material we absorbed during the covid crisis. The important part adds how the economies of the world responded-- this was a hugely dangerous moment with not a lot in the way of precedence. That we came through it with just a temporary supply shortage and a tinge of inflation is a credit to the economic ministers of the world.
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- kartik
- 01-31-24
Nice refresher of the crisis
Detailed analysis of all the key players. Insightful to look at it in retro and appreciate the complete change in our outlook of the coming times.
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- GeeBee
- 03-10-23
An impressive tale
The content and research that went into this book is on evident display throughout, with data-Rick arguments and clear-headed and factual reporting. Where I struggled was sections where the author chose to go on diatribes and into rabbit holes, not necessarily conspiracy theorizing, but certainly hubristic and at least sometimes rather evidently redundant.
My biggest gripe was the fact that entire sections were spent, page after dense page, without a clear tether to the virus that is supposedly at the root of this volume. Agreed that much of what happened in that eventful year 2020 was years, if not decades, in the making and so while contextual relevance was never in question, the author’s persistent and long winded explanations left me wondering whether brevity would have served to demonstrate wit better.
Having said that, though, I must reiterate the absolutely impressive achievement that this book is, and an invaluable and persuasively embarrassing reminder that humanity was never really in control. Wasn’t the first time, and certainly won’t be the last.
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- ellenindc
- 10-17-21
Oh, read this book
Tooze writes history with analysis skill unmatched. Yet, he too is a traveler on the earth with more thank an ounce of skepticism. That makes him relevant.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Timothy
- 09-19-21
Timely and Relevant
An extremely engaging summation of the impact, response and fiscal governance and economic distribution in the age of virus.
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- PNV
- 11-30-21
full of alternative liberal narrative
this was published in late 2021 and yet the author still includes points that have been disproven about the economy the government response political figures.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Carter37
- 09-28-21
Case study in why historians shouldn't play pundit
Tooze, who in the past has produced impressively authoritative and level headed histories on economic crisis, appears this time to have been a bit caught up in the moment. Readers are left scratching their heads as this contemporary telling of history ignored information readily available well in advance of the book's publication. I will leave any discussion of the effect of subsequent historical events on Tooze's thesis, to more objective future historians.
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9 people found this helpful
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- John Fadool
- 09-12-21
Great History dosed with Liberal Fatalism
Adam Tooze’s “Crashed” is one of my top five favorite books, with “Wages of Destruction” being my top ten. This book has good history and recounts of events different from those I tracked during 2020. Still, the authors taint these good moments professed political beliefs and consistent praising of China where such praise doesn't make a ton of sense even when been objective. I think this book would have benefited from a longer gestation time similar to the one Crashed went through prior to it's publication.
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9 people found this helpful