Permacrisis

by Gordon Brown, Michael Spence, Mohamed El-Erian

Do you feel like we’re in a permacrisis? Chances are you feel some anxiety about the state of the world right now. Mohamed, Michael and Gordon certainly did.These three friends – who between them have almost a century of expertise in international economics, business and global government – began talking over zoom at the start of the pandemic. They wanted to discuss the challenges the world was unanticipated shocks, poor policy responses, struggling coordination.But the more they talked, the more they realised there was nothing pre-ordained about the gloomy path we’re on now. Informed by their different perspectives, they sough a common achievable solutions to fix our fractured world. This book is the product of that thinking.An explanation of where we’ve gone wrong and a provocative, inspiring plan to do nothing less than change the world, this book sets out how we can proactively prevent crisis and better manage the future to the benefit of the many and not the few.The longer a problem goes unresolved, the worse it will get; that’s what happens in a permacrisis – and that’s why we need to act now.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Economics, Audiobook, Sociology

352 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2023

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Karen Hancock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing. Not so much a plan as an urge to co-operate among nations. Also rather dull

[Carmen Madrid · Rating 4 out of 5]

"No one would argue that climate change or war problems confined to narrow national boundaries. Financial contagion spreads quickly from one economy to another - a liquidity crisis in one banking sector can scuttle global markets. A different kind of contagion - this time viruses - easily spreads between countries as germs hitch a ride on planes, trains and automobiles traversing the globe. Ours is an interconnected, interdependent world. And global problems demand global solutions"

I like the structure, their stories to introduce every chapter, the information, and the way is told, but I think that the solutions are unrealistic and idealistic.

[Karima · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is hefty with statistical information on the shortcomings of globalization, widening wage gaps, poverty, climate and sustainability, economic management and the roll of governments in the private sector. However, as an average citizen reading this book, I felt there was little I could do and I wondered what audience this book was meant for.

The "plan to fix" part of the book is largely directed at world leaders and the corporate world (to over simplify).

Policymakers currently move from crisis to crisis rather than shifting to a proactive mindset that would prevent crisis and look at ways to manage the future in ways that would benefit everyone. This is pretty obvious, but changing course seems unlikely.

The obstacles to fixing the biggest issues of our time are massive and would require a dramatic shift in thinking from consumers and leaders and it seems neither has much interest in change.

While the views and information in this book are worthy of consideration, I felt it was also futile.

[Michael Bernard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of fascinating ideas and some very helpful explanations but this book is not a plan to fix anything. It's a bunch of wishful thinking without the first indication of how these very good ideas could be put into practice.

[Tom Cooley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once of the best non fiction books I have read in recent years. All the authors are highly distinguished and add their economic weight to our 'Permacrisis' world, but also solvable solutions and hope for the future. I would highly recommend

[Nick Jarman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but a bit too technical economics for me. Not really the fault of the book per se but a lay-reader might struggle to get through it. Still found it insightful but I wouldn't be able to explain much from it to a friend, so I probably didn't take much in!

[Bennett Holloway · Rating 3 out of 5]

this review is pretty half-baked

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N...

[Will Yeeles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable read with interesting information but the plan for solving the issues felt high-level and utopian.

[Lara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Must have been heavily inspired by GenAI, some typical phrases reoccur... apart from that I found the overall narrative disappointing and quite generic.

[Ailuj]

Sounds really interesting

[Pebbles O'Malley]

read this for uni was actually pretty interesting