Overview

"By the New York Times’s Global Economics Correspondent, an extraordinary journey to understand the worldwide supply chain—exposing both the fascinating pathways of manufacturing and transportation that bring products to your doorstep, and the ruthless business logic that has left local communities at the mercy of a complex and fragile network for their basic necessities. ""A tale that will change how you look at the world."" —Mark Leibovich One of Foreign Policy's ""Most Anticipated Books of 2024"" How does the wealthiest country on earth run out of protective gear in the middle of a public health catastrophe How do its parents find themselves unable to locate crucially needed infant formula How do its largest companies spend billions of dollars making cars that no one can drive for a lack of chips The last few years have radically highlighted the intricacy and fragility of the global supply chain. Enormous ships were stuck at sea, warehouses overflowed, and delivery trucks stalled. The result was a scarcity of everything from breakfast cereal to medical devices, from frivolous goods to lifesaving necessities. And while the scale of the pandemic shock was unprecedented, it underscored the troubling reality that the system was fundamentally at risk of descending into chaos all along. And it still is. Sabotaged by financial interests, loss of transparency in markets, and worsening working conditions for the people tasked with keeping the gears turning, our global supply chain has become perpetually on the brink of collapse. In How the World Ran Out of Everything, award-winning journalist Peter S. Goodman reveals the fascinating innerworkings of our supply chain and the factors that have led to its constant, dangerous vulnerability. His reporting takes readers deep into the elaborate system, showcasing the triumphs and struggles of the human players who operate it—from factories in Asia and an almond grower in Northern California, to a group of striking railroad workers in Texas, to a truck driver who Goodman accompanies across hundreds of miles of the Great Plains. Through their stories, Goodman weaves a powerful argument for reforming a supply chain to become truly reliable and resilient, demanding a radical redrawing of the bargain between labor and shareholders, and deeper attention paid to how we get the things we need. From one of the most respected economic journalists working today, How the World Ran Out of Everything is a fiercely smart, deeply informative look at how our supply chain operates, and why its reform is crucial—not only to avoid dysfunction in our day to day lives, but to protect the fate of our global fortunes. "

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9780063257924

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Reviews

"""A biting, uproarious yet vital and deadly serious account of the profound damage the billionaire class is inflicting on the world. Peter S. Goodman guides the reader through the hidden stories and twisted beliefs of some of the titans of finance and industry, who continually rationalize their bad behavior to themselves."" -- JOSEPH E. STIGLITZ, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics ""Unflinching and authoritative, Peter Goodman's Davos Man will be read a hundred years from now as a warning, bellowed from the blessed side of the velvet rope, about a slow-motion scandal that spans the globe. Deliciously rich with searing detail, the clarity is reminiscent of Tom Wolfe, let loose in the Alps, in search of hypocrisies and vanities."" -- EVAN OSNOS, National Book Award-winning author of Age of Ambition and Wildland ""One of the great financial investigative journalists, Peter S. Goodman delivers a meticulously detailed account of how the billionaire class has hijacked the world's economy, feasting on calamity, shirking taxes, all the while spouting bromides about compassionate capitalism. I so wish this tale of limitless greed and hypocrisy was a novel or a mini-series and not the truth about the world in which we live. Reader, prepare to be enraged."" -- BARBARA DEMICK, author of Nothing to Envy and Eat the Buddha ""Goodman is a skilled reporter whose stories of private affluence and public squalor are filled with detail and human interest."" -- Wall Street Journal ""New York Times global economics correspondent Goodman mounts a scathing critique of the greed, narcissism, and hypocrisy that characterize those in 'the stratosphere of the globe-trotting class'... An urgent, timely, and compelling message with nearly limitless implications."" -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) ""A meticulously researched, clearly reported and truly infuriating history of the way the top 1% of the world has systematically arranged the way societies operate in order to become even richer, all to the detriment of the rest of us. ... The book serves as a call to arms and an invitation to fight back against the continued unabashed pillaging of all economies by those who least need it."" -- San Francisco Chronicle ""Well-written and well-reported. ... A passionate denunciation of the mega-rich."" -- The Economist ""Impressively detailed. ... Very readable, extensively reported. ... A well-researched and lively explanation of how the global economy works, and the turning points that have enabled profiteering by the ultra-rich while undermining societal and democratic institutions."" -- Charter ""Excellent. ... An angry, powerful look at the economic inequality that's been brought into sharp relief by the COVID-19 pandemic. ... A powerful, fiery book, and it could well be an essential one."" -- NPR.org ""The Times's global economics correspondent profiles five billionaires (along with workers and migrants across the world) to show how their exploitation of the pandemic has exacerbated inequality across the globe."" -- New York Times Book Review ""Powerful. ... Goodman's reporting is biting and bitterly funny. ... Davos Man shows us that today's extreme wealth is inextricably linked to a great crime, perhaps the greatest one of this century: the hijacking of our democracy."" -- Washington Post"

Author Information

Peter S. Goodman is the Global Economics Correspondent for the New York Times. He was previously the NYT’s European economics correspondent, based in London, and the national economics correspondent, based in New York, where he played a leading role in the paper’s award-winning coverage of the Great Recession, including a series that was a Pulitzer finalist. Previously, he covered the Internet bubble and bust as the Washington Post’s telecommunications reporter, and served as WashPo’s China-based Asian economics correspondent. He is the author of Davos Man and Past Due: The End of Easy Money and the Renewal of the American Economy. He graduated from Reed College and completed a master’s in Vietnamese history from the University of California, Berkeley.

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