MegaThreats: Ten Dangerous Trends That Imperil Our Future, And How to Survive Them
MegaThreats: Ten Dangerous Trends That Imperil Our Future, And How to Survive Them book cover

MegaThreats: Ten Dangerous Trends That Imperil Our Future, And How to Survive Them

Hardcover – October 18, 2022

Price
$18.30
Format
Hardcover
Pages
320
Publisher
Little, Brown and Company
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0316284059
Dimensions
6.25 x 1.13 x 9.5 inches
Weight
15.2 ounces

Description

“ 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."xa0xa0 xa0― Nassim 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."― Martin 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.” xa0― Ian 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.xa0Ignore this book at your own peril.”― Mohamed 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—his goal is to prepare you. The better you are at anticipating problems, the better positioned you become to prevent them and solve them.”― Adam Grant “Calm, clear-headed and possibly prescient, MegaThreats combines important historical analogies,xa0broad-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.” xa0― Kenneth Rogoff, co-author of This Time is Different "If recent history has taught us one thing, it is that Black Swan events happen—and more frequently than we expect.xa0Nouriel Roubini describes the most threatening swans and how we can avoid being pecked to death.xa0 Technology offers solutions but, as Nouriel warns, technology without political will buys us nothing.xa0 This is not an optimistic forecast, but it is a sobering and necessary one.” xa0― Barry 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 foodxa0for thought.” xa0― Publishers Weekly Nouriel Roubini is a professor of economics at New York University's Stern School of Business and the founder and chairman of Roubini Global Economics. He has served in the White House and the U.S. Treasury. He lives in New York City.

Features & Highlights

  • "Read and pay attention" (Martin Wolf, the
  • Financial Times
  • ): the bestselling author of
  • Crisis Economics
  • argues we are heading toward the worst economic catastrophe of our lifetimes, unless we can defend against ten terrifying threats.
  • Renowned economist Nouriel Roubini was nicknamed “Dr. Doom,” until his prediction of the 2008 housing crisis and Great Recession came true--when it was too late. Now he is back with a much scarier prediction, one that we ignore at our peril. There are no fewer than ten overlapping, interconnected threats that are so serious, he calls them Megathreats. From the worst debt crisis the world has ever seen, to governments pumping out too much money, to borders that are blocked to workers and to many shipments of goods, to the rise of a new superpower competition between China and the U.S., to climate change that strikes directly at our most populated cities, we are facing not one, not two, but ten causes of disaster. There is a slight chance we can avoid them, if we come to our senses—but we must act now.   In the 1970s, the U.S. faced stagflation: high rates of inflation combined with stagnant employment and growth. Today, we are heading toward a Great Stagflation that will make the 1970s look like a walk in the park.

Customer Reviews

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Most Helpful Reviews

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Roubini shows his political bias

Remember that Roubini is writing this book through the lens of an economist. He's not an expert in the environment or in political affairs.
He unquestionably accepts environmental thesis and computer modeling that has been shown to be false in the past. He acceps this data that may be misleading or even falsified to perpetuate an agenda of climate change. But about the economy he is an expert with a deep background of experience.He shows his political bias in many ways addressing the January 6 scenario as an attempt to overthrow the government when the protesters were invited in, the police did not stop them. And they really did nothing but take photographs of themselves and wander around but I suppose in Italy they've heard a very different story. Trump is seen as a threat to the economy when the US economy flourished under him. Now with massive inflation and food shortages Biden is praised as being the reasonable one with no tendencies at autocratic rule. Like I said the real news probably doesn't get over to Italy about the US.
The book is a good read in that it is written well and easy to read. But a lot of things that he portrays as facts are not. I took many notes to question many things that he said he seems to think that China and India have a right to keep polluting on a massive scale because developed countries had that right. But things have changed dramatically since our industrialization and was it our fault that China and India did not develop earlier before climate concerns? He says how we have to curtail our emissions and bring them down by 2030 dramatically but that China and India shouldn't have to live under such restrictions and they've already said they won't. So their economies will flourish while ours will falter and may even die with the excessive restrictions imposed on us by the Paris climate accord and the urgency of the WEF. He accepts that UBI Is a good thing because it won't lead to populism if people have a guaranteed income and just sit around on their computers all day he actually likes that idea. Getting a guaranteed income does not encourage one to work be more creative or develop ones talents. it's just another trap.
He says pandemics are caused by climate change and I guess conveniently forgets that many people are now accepting that COVID-19 started in a lab it wasn't caused by climate change at all. And researchers have now invented a version of COVID-19 that is five times more deadlier and again, done in a lab. So as usual, with these elites that predict the future, the facts they use as a basis for their arguments are almost always erroneous to some degree and this book Megathreats' is no exception.
113 people found this helpful
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Short on viable solutions

While much of the book is a rehash of history, Mr Roubini was certainly on the mark with respect to excessive monetary expansion and debt during the Trump years. Commentators in 2022 prefer to blame all of the economy’s ills on Biden (Trump now ancient, forgotten history). Trump’s handpicked Fed chairman eventually succumbed to Trump’s browbeating for unlimited QE and Powell delivered in 2020 buying up lots of private junk debt while Secretary Munchin was handing out hundreds of billions to political favorites with no audits.

Roubini like others spends a great deal of time on future costs of the aging American population. All of those unfunded benefits combined with rapacious corporate greed in the form of pharmaceutical companies, hospital and nursing home chains, truly create staggering future debts.

What is to be done? Slashing medical spending would certainly put a lot of people out of work and crater stock prices of companies now engaged in extortion.

Then there are the human costs resulting from an effort to shrink spending on the old and sick. I have always believed individuals should have the right to die through assisted suicide, but the religious warriors would prevent that from ever happening. These well known groups would seize this issue for shameless political exploitation by the religious. Think of the prospects for fundraising!

Since most of those on the right appear to be going over the edge in their quest to destroy democracy, perhaps many of these activists would start a campaign for a “big guvmint” solution drawing on the historical precedents? The same people who would reject an individual’s right to choose death over a slow painful decline would probably accept more draconian methods of eliminating the old and the sick?
33 people found this helpful
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High probablity this will happen

Dr. Doom is back- he makes many erudite predictions. He is one of the first leading economists, to be honest about the climate issue. He does get the number right- reaching 1.5C above preindustrial levels is going to cause pain (we are currently nearing 1.3C. C02 in the atmosphere in every interglacial over the last 800,000 has been around 275ppm, In the interglacial of 300,000 years ago- it reached 297ppm- that's the highest over 800K years. In an ice age -175ppm over this time period (8 ice ages) These changes of about 100ppm are due to slight changes in earth's orbit (Milankovitch cycles) In 1958 we stood at 312ppm- that's up about 35ppm in ice cores from the past. The famous Keeling Curve invented in 1958 has data showing we breached 422ppm in spring '22- and could reach 425ppm in spring '23. Going from 175-to 275ppm took about 7,000 years. We have risen over 100ppm since 1958!

So Dr. Roubini knows the science and the impacts- bravo for him- since many people remain totally ignorant. The threats and impacts of climate change will get worse- and quickly.

There is evidence with further warming more pandemics could occur. Social issues such as inequality, immigration, and massive debt are more sauce for the goose. Yes, as he has said- Roubini- 'Fasten your seat belts. its going to be a long bumpy ride into dark night.
15 people found this helpful
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Essential reading

I have followed Roubini since before the GFC, and this book was a must-read for me. Although he has broadly gone through the main themes in his various interviews on Bloomberg and other outlets, I found this book valuable in helping me to understand the thinking behind these themes, and importantly, his view on where the world may end up. Although some may find this book too pessimistic, I think he unabashedly lays out the world as it is, without any sugar-coating. Not exactly cozy bedside reading, but a highly important, relevant and timely read to quickly understand the threats we face, the reasons why we are heading towards them, and how to should position ourselves in the face of them. An indispensable read!
14 people found this helpful
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Save your money

This book is merely a review of all the financial, social and political problems of the past 75 years with no attempt at insight or solution.
13 people found this helpful
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Forewarned is forarmed

Just about every MegaThreat in this book gives one pause, and hopefully, most won't come to pass, but I'm glad I read the book. Sticking one's head in the sand isn't a plan in this dangerous world, and I've already thought of a few ways to make some lemonade!
13 people found this helpful
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One of the best reads of 2022

This book gives incredibly interesting insights into the future of our world. If you are interested in reading about trend projections from a financial or geopolitical standpoint I highly recommend it. Very well written and thought provoking.
6 people found this helpful
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Viable techniques

The book provides some excellent information and how best to mediate- dr doom strikes again !!
2 people found this helpful
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Armageddon

Un-read at your own risk. Nouriel does not make this stuff up.
2 people found this helpful
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Must read!!

If you care for your’s and your children’s future, you must buy and read this book. We are literally like a bunch of idiots arguing who get to seat at head table on deck while the ship has already hit the iceberg.

This book is well researched and reasoned. He does not try to frighten anyone but present the facts with impeccable logic. These mega sized threats are truly unprecedented in human history and frightening. Highly, highly recommended. A must read.
1 people found this helpful