La globalizzazione è finita: La via locale alla prosperità in un mondo post-globale

by Rana Foroohar, Michele Zurlo (Translator)

L’era della globalizzazione senza limiti è giunta al capolinea. Rana Foroohar – giornalista economica di grande esperienza, editorialista e vicedirettrice del «Financial Times» – in questo saggio ci invita a ripensare il modello economico che ha dominato il mondo negli ultimi cinquant’anni. L’autrice conduce un’approfondita analisi della crisi della globalizzazione neoliberista, evidenziandone le contraddizioni e le conseguenze più devastanti: dalla delocalizzazione selvaggia, che ha distrutto il tessuto produttivo di intere nazioni, alla corsa sfrenata al profitto che ha aggravato le disuguaglianze, fino alla dipendenza da catene di approvvigionamento globali fragili e vulnerabili, messa in luce da eventi come la pandemia di COVID-19 e la guerra in Ucraina. Ma questo libro non è soltanto una critica puntuale ai fallimenti dell’iperglobalizzazione, è soprattutto un manifesto per un nuovo modello di sviluppo più locale, equo e sostenibile. Secondo Foroohar «ciò di cui abbiamo bisogno è un paradigma più adatto alla realtà del mondo dopo Trump, dopo la Brexit, dopo l’ascesa della Cina e post-digitale». Con ricchezza di dati ed esempi concreti, Foroohar illustra come sia in corso un cambiamento epocale verso economie più localizzate e regionali, in cui produzione e consumo sono più vicini. Questa svolta non è un nostalgico ritorno al passato, ma costituisce la chiave per costruire un sistema economico più prospero e giusto, al servizio del benessere collettivo e del pianeta. L’accelerazione dei processi di deglobalizzazione – resa possibile dall’innovazione tecnologica, che permette la produzione su scala locale di una vasta gamma di beni e servizi – rappresenta un’opportunità straordinaria per creare posti di lavoro, ridurre le disuguaglianze, rafforzare le comunità locali e garantire maggiore resilienza e diversificazione produttiva in caso di shock esterni. Con uno stile chiaro e coinvolgente, La globalizzazione è finita offre una visione lucida e dettagliata del futuro dell’economia mondiale.

Genres: Economics, Nonfiction, Politics, Business, The World, History

552 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2022

About the author

Rana Foroohar is the author of Don’t Be Evil, which won a Porchlight Business Book Award, and Makers and Takers. Currently the global business columnist and associate editor for the Financial Times and the global economic analyst for CNN, she has served as the assistant managing editor and economic columnist at Time and an economic and foreign affairs editor and foreign correspondent at Newsweek. She is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and sits on the board of the Open Markets Institute.

Reviews

[Hank · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars rounded up because it was perfect for me. Allow me another stupid analogy, like college football, where it is better to lose early than later, Homecoming was a bit of a miss for me early with a great finish (unlike USC).

The introductory chapters were somewhat themeless and seemed to just randomly touch on a variety of economic topics without much cohesion, once the chapters started addressing more specific ideas and topics it was much, much better. The information was much easier to digest and think about without being distracted by trying to incorporate too many other ideas.

This book is described as the anti-Thomas Friedman who frequently wrote about how globalization is taking over and called the world flat. I would say Foroohar presents a mostly flat world but with lots of texture (i.e. not completely flat). COVID and the war in Ukraine has shown all of us the dangers of relying on far flung supply chains, Foroohar does an excellent job of showing how localization can help a bit and the dangers that aren't readily seen.

This hit my current sweet spot of interest in econmics and economic knowledge. Tons of information I did not already know but framed inside some I did. She tells great stories with economics which I think would appeal to everyone.

[Salty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot about where we are as a world, society, and economy and how we got here. It helped me put today’s world in perspective in ways I had not thought of before. It helped me rethink the globalization of our economic system and what it has wrought. Since I am learning more and more about the great man GK Chesterton who lived and wrote one hundred years ago and who presciently saw the advantages of “localism” over a world dominated by his British Empire, this book gives me insight in just how correct Chesterton was.
My only complaint is that the author makes her same points repeatedly.

[Khan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since the rise of Trump and the aftermath of the pandemic, I have felt as if a global political and economic shift has occurred. An end of an era type of feeling. We're in a new time period of remote work, rapidly rising costs and the disintegration of global supply chains. I picked up this book because I thought maybe it could perhaps explain what I felt was changing both politically and economically. Rana Foroohar's "Homecoming" does exactly that. It signals an end of the Neo-Liberal era as it is politically unpopular, despised and leading to insurgent political ideologies from the left and the right which are clashing with establishment sentiment. You could even argue that these new ideologies have both been adopted by the Trump and Biden administration in their global trade policy albeit in different strategic ways. The books main premise is that after 40 some odd years of Neo-Liberalism, the belief in the sense of whats good for the corporation is good for the worker, what is good for global trade is good for the citizen of that country has become undeniably false and politically untenable. A political feeling shared both on the left, right and independent's you name it. The rise of Trump, the way the pandemic revealed how fragile global supply chains are to minor shocks with drastic non-linear effects and the leg-up countries like China have on critical supplies needed in times of emergency like the pandemic has brutally dismantled the Ne0-Liberal thinking. Let's get into this one.

I think its important to establish what Neo-Liberalism is and how it has impacted the United States over the last 40 years. NL can be best categorized as favoring the individual's interest over the interest of the state in theory(its all theory) create an economic impact that would benefit all individual's of the state. How this is incorporated into the fabric of civilization is through the philosophical approach of
- Government stays out of the corporations interest.
- The private sector should in fact look to do things the Government does because it is more "efficient"
- Corporations should hold share holder maximization as the highest priority, be negligent to the whims of workers and communities.
- Corporations should strive for cost cutting, outsourcing critical infrastructure in other areas of the globe in order to save on costs even if it puts the nation as a whole as a disadvantage from an innovation and national security POV.
- Globalization and trade with autocratic societies will lead to democracy and democratic values being shared globally.
- Politics should be catered around the individual and their ability to gain capital even again if it as the expense of democracy itself.

This ideology has flung in the highest corridors of power over the last 40 years. With economists from prestigious universities, CEO's, founders, presidents, politicians, reporters and think tanks all espousing the same ideology. After 40's what do we have to show for it? Corporate centralization which has moved into the political sphere legalizing speech for itself in the form of donations which allows them to further secure advantages over small competitors. A market that has increasingly become financialized, taking a larger share of the economic pie by creating assets that are mostly for trading between themselves with no real intrinsic value tied to the economy. Resulting in corporations suspending innovation and buying back shares, cashing out on stock buy backs over the future of the company. Lower interest rates which inflated asset prices and priced lower and middle class families out of the market. Hallowing out factories, once bustling towns turn into zombie zones which are bum rushed in with oxycontin pills which were successfully pushed through due to laissez faire regulatory framework. Creating the opening for a demagogue to emerge successfully weaponizing economic pain. Not to mention creating a corporate oligarchy which aligns itself with share holders at the disinterest of the nation as a whole creating astronomic wealth in countries like China who have exploded onto the global policy scene and it no doubt a rival to the US, harvesting intellectual property and building the majority of items we once bought. We were told the cheaper prices in good would offset the economic loss but this has been a total miscalculation. You have a startlingly amount of people in the country who believe in conspiracy theories like the rigging of the 2020 election, have 0 trust in news media nor trust in government.

Indeed NL has been a flat out disaster, now living in what is an oligarchy where the richest citizens can successfully lobby and strike down popular policies with insurgent political donations and campaigns of seemingly endless resources can easily play us against one another. This has been the core of the Coke brothers strategy until Trump came along and called them "Losers" and the beginning of his fake populist rhetoric that still give him millions of loyal supporters today.

Once the pandemic hit it, it revealed the fragileness of globalization, the supply chain shocks which wrecked havoc on global market and critical resources that need to be shipped to countries. The pandemic felt like the final breathe of NL being taken away. Ironically policy makers who advocated for globalization were criticizing the fact the US needed to bring in critical supplies with no hubris as if there is no record of the statements they made in the past. The pandemic revealed the issues companies face from a global perspective if their supply chains are disrupted which is forcing many to localize their supply chains to build redundancy. The book sights many companies are beginning to rethink the current conventional philosophy and question its validity in this time period. It has brought a number of corporations to indeed rebuild factories in America, question the relevance of a 4 year degree and the debt that comes with it. The average couple with a 4 year degree hold 53k in debt which can amount to 208,000 in their lifetimes. What could be used for retirement or a home is now being sunk into degrees which do not bring the economic vitality it once had. This brought trade schools to the forefront who its members can get skills for cheap costs and then make more than undergrad degree holders in a wife variety of fields.

The new revolution has also followed into the agriculture sector where the monopolies have supply chains that make no sense to have if there existed more local supply chains. Reducing costs for customers as there are stories of community agriculture and local supply chains forming in towns after the pandemic. This has a significant impact on level of waste and climate change as a whole. Many of the behemoths of food agriculture have supply chains that contain levels of waste which drastically impact climate change.

The book goes into many examples of the differences being made in this new era, I am not sure how successful they will be but the interest for me is a growing sense the current economic philosophy is not desirable thus signaling an important shift in some cases to localization and increases in manufacturing. We will have to see how the wealthy respond in donations and campaigns for certain laws in retaliation to potential threats to power over the upcoming years but there is no doubt a shift from an order that lasted a generation. It will be interesting to see what the future holds and how this will play out especially with countries like China.

[Ryan Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought provoking read about the world post-globalization (or the world undergoing the shift away from globalization). The book goes through examples of existing companies or ventures that may give insight into how the new age of economic localization may work. Localization becomes more important in light of the strain placed on global supply chains in recent history. Ultimately, the argument is that less attenuated supply chains mean more resilient and grounded economics.

Overall an enjoyable, topical read. I do wish that there was a chapter focusing on the post-globalization extreme event of Brexit. Also, I think the USA-EU vs. Russia-China dynamics are a bit oversimplified.

[Miguel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have 2 recollections of listening to this (and Foroohar's subsequent podcast interviews to promote the book) 1) that it was pretty good for the subject matter 2) that she discussed trying to relate to the subject matter by commenting on the high price of groceries in the Hamptons, which seemed to be a rather clumsy way to comment on the topics she presents given the optics there. Not being so wrapped up in the book wasn't just soured by that comment, but wasn't as taken with her last one either.

[Lisa Bakazias · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rana Foroohar has outdone herself…hard to top Makers and Takers and Don’t Be Evil…but she did with Homecoming. Rana told a very unbiased and fascinating history of neo-liberalism leading to globalism. And that now we are in the early stages of a changing global economic model. For any of us supply chain geeks, the efficient vs. resilient supply chain premise tells us exactly how we got to where we are. The good, the bad and the ugly.
What caught me by surprise was her beginning chapters on the lack of food chain resiliency we have put ourselves into for a variety of reasons. Rana explored DARPA’s Defense Sciences Offices and the visionary work that goes on to drive resiliency in our food supply and next generation farming with significantly less negative impact to the planet. She takes us into the world of the most famous economists…most of whom have gotten it badly wrong. She takes us through what manufacturers have figured out to survive in high wage countries like the U.S. and Germany and why manufacturing is so important to the health of nations and communities. She explores 3-D printing or additive manufacturing and all of its brilliant promise with fascinating examples. She explores digital currencies, semi-conductor wars, and then a provocative chapter on The Caring Economy…not what you may think…but where aging populations will need extensive support and how that will create a new economic model. What I loved was how much ground the author covered and the absolutely mind-bowing visionary work that is also going on. We need to understand how we got here in order to move into a different model. Rana has done this brilliantly.

[AB Freeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Following the supply chain challenges the 2020 COVID pandemic exposed, important geopolitical and geoeconomics topics, such as deglobalisation, decoupling (or "derisking"), and multipolarity, rose to the fore in foreign policy discussions. Homecoming is the Financial Times’ Rana Foroohar’s published entry into that discussion. In it, she examines important shifts in the fault lines of global trade, highlighting the repercussions of onshoring, “friendshoring”, the increasing regionalisation of trading blocs, and much more.

A few quotes:

“…the free market changed us from citizens into consumers, increasingly beholden to the increasingly large companies that outsourced our jobs and mined our personal data even as they sold us the increasingly bright and shiny objects of late-stage capitalism (often on credit).”

“…in our evolving world, decentralization, localization, and redundancy of supply will be the name of the game. Creating resiliency will mean getting more economic participants into the game, not allowing a small number to hold all the power.”

4 stars. An erudite and compelling entry into the discussion, her thesis that a shift to economic resiliency (over the neoliberal calls for efficiency) remains salient, her solutions to the current challenges imminently persuasive. Those interested in the shifting sands of global supply chains and evolving economic policy should look to this book as an important primer for possible solutions in the near- to long-term.

[Neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

A number of FT columnists have book projects. Rana Foroohar is one of them. Her first book, about Financialization contains some huge insights about the financial markets and the disservice it has done to Main Street in many respects. Her second, about the power of big tech, is a cry to wake up to the value of data that is being exploited by big tech to the loss of the consumer.

This book focuses on the need to make supply chains - food and manufacturing - more resilient. Her approach is pragmatic and compassionate. Her economic sense is always people focused rather than market fundamentalist. She writes well and it’s a good read with timely information about key social and economic trends. Give it a read.

[Herzog · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a provocative and thought provoking book. It covers issues that I wish that our politicians concerned themselves with including state run capitalism and capitalism run states, supply chains, just-in-time vs resilience, big agriculture, trade issues, wealth concentration, digital currency, additive manufacturing, big data, the caring economy (healthcare, child care and elder care), the concentration of chip manufacturing in Taiwan and big data...whew! She cites sources and interviews people working in these spaces. Great work!

[Andrew Figueiredo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A couple of years ago, I listened to a podcast with Rana Foroohar and found myself impressed. Here was somebody whose name graces the pages of the Financial Times advocating a more localist economics. I finally got around to reading "Homecoming" this month and enjoyed it. Foroohar is not anti-globalization, but instead believes that "more focus on the local is actually crucial to saving what is best about globalization." (xviii). Her thesis is that we must re-inject a sense of place into the economy, with a focus on building more local and more resilient supply chains. Foroohar puts academic and anecdotal meat on the bones of a post-neoliberal, trade-skeptic agenda. She deploys many studies and statistics but also tells the story of American companies like textile manufacturers in the Carolinas who are seeking to rebuild American industry. This keeps the book accessible and entertaining, although at times I wish she had gotten more technical/policy-oriented.

Much of Foroohar's reasoning emerges from a quest to find out what might pacify the populists revolting in Western politics. Some on the right might be tempted to dismiss this urge as pandering, and some on the neoliberal center-left as reactionary. However, we should welcome it. If we on the center-left paid the kind of careful attention that Forohoor does to what people like Trump and Steve Bannon are saying, the center-left would be in a better place politically and the country would be less divided in facing the hollowing-out of Middle America.

Forohoor clearly shows how a global paradigm centered around efficiency failed to build resiliency, something we all learned about during the COVID-19 supply chain crises. And she also elaborates on why free trade with China turned out to be a failure. To her credit, Foroohar proposes solutions that come from the government and from business alike and points out where both of these sectors have failed, as with food security. She proposes a more organized industrial policy, combatting cross-government informational siloes, taking advantage of local synergies (as with the aforementioned textile industry), supporting cooperatives, encouraging vertical integration, embracing additive manufacturing (a cool item I hadn't read much about before), and supporting trade schooling. These policies go beyond tax cuts and subsidies, "building infrastructure and creating a supportive environment for investment." (211). There are a few questionable proposals in the mix too, and a strangely spirited defense of Qualcomm, but her good ideas outweigh the bad in my mind. And it's realistic, as Foroohar doesn't engage in the sort of nostalgic "reopen the mills" pandering that people like President-elect Trump do. She recognizes that industry has changed and that industrial policy isn't primarily a jobs program as much as it is a national sovereignty program. She doesn't advocate autarky, but more strategic alliances. She also understands that antitrust is not a magic bullet for fixing everything wrong with the economy. Her nuanced explanations grapple with difficult realities and tradeoffs, making her proposals refreshingly forward-looking.

As the world becomes more cognizant of the costs of neoliberal globalization, more policymakers and business leaders should consider how place matters in economics. There are hopeful signs that they are in the wake of President Biden's term as president. Foroohar's book continues to foreground the point that place matters, and considering her audience among financially elite econ-savvy types, is a good launching pad for further discussions and for opening minds.

[Jamie Flinchbaugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was tough to give a rating for because I've actually recommended this book to several people. I think the themes uncovered in this book are important trends in macroeconomics, global politics, and business strategy. Understand the inevitable flaws in an unchecked freetrade policy, and a bit about what can be done about it, is important as a management decision making, as well as a voter.

Unfortunately, whether a lack of research, lack of mature thinking about the subject, or a lack of collaborative fact checking, there are many, many factual flaws with the supporting evidence. Some of them are fairly innocent, such as claiming the Colonial Pipeline cyberattack shut down heat and water in Texas from natural gas instead of shutting down gasoline supply to the East Coast. There's a whole chapter on Chip Wars and makes claims supporting her main thesis than Intel is finally making their own chips again, which they have been doing, instead of that they're running parallel foundry and proprietary design manufacturing. These are both things that a 5 minute conversation could cure. And the book is filled with this misunderstandings.

If you look past the flaws, the underlying content is quite good, and so it's a shame that the book wasn't better researched.

[bussy barbecue · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent book that is a prescription of how we can progress in a post-neoliberal world. There aren't any topics I haven't heard of before, but having them all in one place, discussed in relative depth, was convenient: supply chains, wealth concentration, digital currency, big agriculture, the caring economy, critical minerals, bid data, democracy, etc. In recognizing the excesses of the past half century of globalization , Rana Foroohar urges the remooring of our economy towards a community of stakeholders and of place, while crafting a new international system that is able to share wealth and power more equally. What I find most bleak, though, is positioning the book's well substantiated ideas in the matrix of our deeply polarized politics, and whether we as a nation can still do big things. I see promise in how there is political consensus for change that only differ in tone, and I see real progress in revitalizing America's industrial policy, which has made this country great before, so I have hope of an actualized prosperous future paved from her ideas if only we have the willpower to reach that path's treacherous and byzantine ends.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The subtitle is "the path to prosperity in a post-global world." This book highlights the pitfalls of globalization and discusses coming changes as the world seeks to address these pitfalls in manufacturing, agriculture, trade, and electronics. The author discusses what our future will probably look like as she discusses our future economy in healthcare, daycare, and education. We need to start thinking global but building local.

Highly recommended. Lots to think about in this book!

[BASC · Rating 5 out of 5]

very cogent argument about the future of localism vs. globalism. local self-sufficiency is necessary for a post-global society and i appreciated that she discussed the key role of technology to enable this future.

[Charles Chase · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent discussion around neoliberal economic policies and how fragile these systems are. The repeated theme of resilience over efficiency as a driver of markets is interesting, particularly when considering food supply. Excellent story telling and good subject matter. Really enjoyed this.

[Henry]

This book -- and probably many more like it -- is completely obsolete, now during Trump's second term. No pre-2025 economic discussion about the future makes sense anymore since they do not incorporate the tariff war and the shifting alliances and influence that is happening right now.

[Mohd Jamizal · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this because PMx also read this book

[Joseph Mullan]

Good read!

[Gene Bellinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspiring the future

Demonstrates concrete examples of where we are moving from efficiency toward resilience for our future benefit in business, city, state...

[Ivan Kvesic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well explained failure of globalization after the 90s. It explains how neoliberalism policies created winners and losers, and how China took advantage of the WTO.

[Cal Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was drawn to this book because of a compelling interview Rana did on the Ezra Klein show, where she laid out how asset prices had become inflated. She made the point that America had low interest rates for many years and instead of using that opportunity to build infrastructure, America used it to prop up asset prices. That point wasn't fleshed out in this book, which focused more on putting down the neoliberal world order and argue for local manufacturing. Some of the arguments were soft, such as the example-less section on the blockchain, and some were overdone (yes we get it, relying on another country solely for crucial stuff is bad). A bit disappointing from someone who likes reading econ books.

[Davide Sciacca · Rating 2 out of 5]

I came to this book after listening to the author being interviewed in an italian podcast.
My formation is of a physicist, but I am very interested in history and economics, and I think the book does very well the job to list and describe the main points where globalization and neoliberalism fucked up:
- It was never supposed to be a democratic system, but actually the system was engineered to be protected by the everchaning desires of the masses. Global economy needed to be protected by fascism and nationalism, and capital needed to to go where it was best for it to go.
- How it was very naive for all the political and economical deciders to think that if China opened to the world market, it would have also stopped being a state-managed economy.
- How the optimization of agriculture and "food safety" has led to giant macro-companies that own incredible amount of land (in the US) to manage to bring and keep food price down, but how it also led to make any change towards sustainability or cultivate something else economically impossible as it would be more expensive than the set price.
- How every other industry was de-localized to the best economical spot, not understanding that people do not move as freely as money. This stands true for manufacturing, but also critical industries like semiconductors.

There are also parts I am not sure of understanding. The chapter about health and care, it seems to depict a future where the industry of caring for old people will be a major one, and while this is true, as all the people born during the economical boom after WWII will die and there will be a more symmetrical age pyramid, the situation will re-balance, so I do not think this describes a long-term trend on how we bring back jobs at "home". The chapter on housing raises a good point that the emissions of the sector are incredibly high, but then it talks mostly of house financing and 3D printing as a way of building a house faster and cheaper. Trying to use local materials (like earth) and have more jobs in the sector as insulation will become a major thing in housing is actually more important than how we finance houses, and 3D printing is gonna be interesting only if we manage to bring cement emissions down. Also, housing has always been a very localized business (and working for a company that does that, I have some info).

Overall, I felt the book to be overly dense, especially as chapters went on, something giving too many details and often repeating information too many times, sometimes possibly without a clear link between the main topic and the anecdotes (to make them look less like anecdotes). Possibly it is my not-economist background.