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Megathreats

On sale

20th October 2022

Price: £20

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Selected: Hardcover / ISBN-13: 9781529373776

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A Financial Times Economics Book of the Year
A Times Business Book of the Year
A Sunday Independent (Ireland) Book of the Year

‘People who like horror films will love this book’ Financial Times

‘Roubini has surpassed even his high standards . . . Forewarned is forearmed. Read and pay attention’ Martin Wolf


‘Not only will the reader be better off after reading this book, but the world will be a better place’ Nassim Nicholas Taleb

We are heading towards the worst economic catastrophe of our lifetimes – unless we can defend against ten terrifying threats.

World renowned economist Nouriel Roubini was nicknamed Dr. Doom until his warnings of the 2008 housing crisis and Great Financial Crisis came true – when it was too late. Now he’s back with much scarier predictions, ones that we ignore at our peril. There are no fewer than ten overlapping, interconnected threats that are so serious Roubini describes them as megathreats – with each one potentially amplifying the others. From the worst debt crisis the world has ever seen, to governments pumping out too much money and causing inflation, to borders that are blocked to workers and many shipments of goods, to the rise of a new superpower competition between China and the US, to pandemics and climate change that strike directly at our most populated cities, to the threat to jobs coming from AI, we are facing not one, not two, but ten causes of disaster.

Today, we are heading towards a Great Stagflation that will make the 1970s look moderate. There is a slight chance we can avoid it, if we come to our senses – but we must act now.

Reviews

Ian Bremmer, President of Eurasia Group and author of THE POWER OF CRISIS
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
Kenneth Rogoff, co-author of THIS TIME IS DIFFERENT
Calm, clear-headed and possibly prescient . . . a bracing assessment of long-term risks to the global economy. Dark, perhaps, but brilliant, for sure
Barry Eichengreen, George C. Pardee & Helen N. Pardee Chair and Distinguished Professor of Economics and Political Science, University of California, Berkeley
If recent history has taught us one thing, it is that Black Swan events happen - and more frequently than we expect. Nouriel Roubini describes the most threatening swans and how we can avoid being pecked to death . . . This is not an optimistic forecast, but it is a sobering and necessary one
Martin Wolf
Roubini 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
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of THE BLACK SWAN
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
Mohamed El-Erian
A tour de force . . . This clever and timely analysis 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
Adam Grant, bestselling author of THINK AGAIN
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
New Statesman
[Roubini] has seen a pattern in the world and he has a warning for the rest of us
Financial Times
How bad might the future be? One can rely on Nouriel Roubini to give the most plausible answer to that question. In this case, he surpasses his own high standards of doomsaying. People who like horror films will love this book