Connected: 24 Hours in the Global Economy

by Daniel Altman

What if you could look behind the headlines of the global economy to see how it really worked? Instead of listening to pundits, politicians, and protestors, you could see firsthand how everyone from migrant workers to central bank governors lived their lives. Then you could decide for yourself where the big trends were heading. Now you can. 24 Hours in the Global Economy isn’t another polemic for or against globalization. Daniel Altman takes you on a whirlwind journey through more than a dozen cities, gathering points of view from moguls, ministers, and the men and women on the street. At each stop, you’ll hear how the world’s workers played their parts in the events of a single day. Starting with their stories, related in their own words, you’ll take on pressing questions in new Can poor countries become rich too quickly? Can corruption ever be a good thing? Do companies need crises in order to stay competitive? What determines the global economic pecking order? Most important, you’ll learn how the billions of decisions made by individuals can and do change the future. 24 Hours in the Global Economy is part travel guide, part owner’s manual—an absorbing, accessible, and essential road map for every citizen of the global economy in the twenty-first century.

Genres: Economics, Nonfiction, Business

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Daniel Altman is an American-born author, journalist and economist. His
latest book, Connected: 24 Hours in the Global Economy, was published
in May 2007 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. He is also the author of Neoconomy:
George Bush's Revolutionary Gamble With America's Future, which was
published by PublicAffairs in 2004.

Altman began his career as an academic economist with a doctorate from
Harvard University. His first job outside the ivory tower was as the London-
based economics correspondent for The Economist. Later he became one
of the youngest-ever members of the editorial board of The New York Times.
He current writes regular columns on globalization for the International Herald
Tribune. In between, he was an economic adviser to the British government.

For the past year, Altman has been writing a weekday blog for the Herald
Tribune called Managing Globalization. He lives in Buenos Aires, Hong
Kong and New York. (from the author's website)"

Reviews

[kim McRad · Rating 2 out of 5]

i think the task of explaining the interconnectedness of the global economy might have been too daunting a task for one book. maybe my hopes were too high, but the chapters were more like snapshots from the global economy instead of an attempt to explain the 'web' of globalization.

[Monzenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

High four stars. The book should have been titled "24 Hours in the Financial Markets" because a majority of the snippets were about members of that industry. Obviously, as a fellow member, I enjoyed the snippets, and this would have been five stars for me, had the narrative been more cohesive. The thing that holds back the fifth star for me is really the framing of the premise as the "global economy " Granted, financial markets are of course integral to the global economy, but other economic books have been successful in focusing on the lived economy and not on the financial markets part. Also, it was quite odd talking about emerging markets, yet the vignettes (fun as they may be) go back to a US or European institution. Might it have been because the author didn't have too much access to boots on the economic ground? Perhaps; still it was a bit of a disappointment.

Nonetheless, I would be happy to recommend this to friends who wish to take a look at mid-2000s global finance. Let's not get too hasty about the "economy" bit though.

[Mckochan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I should have read this 10 years ago.

[Liam · Rating 3 out of 5]

"For 2006, the World Bank ranked China 91st out of 155 countries for the ease of doing business. China offered a particularly difficult climate for starting a business, getting credit, dealing with licenses, and paying taxes; it ranked no higher than 113th in any of those categories." (69)

"For example, I already stayed in Fujian since 1996, while my hukou (permanent residence permit) is still in Guanghan County, Sichuan Province. Without a local hukou, it meas that you will lose many advantages that local people have, such as the allowance on education, health, communication, and the entry condition for a better job in government and public organizations. Migrant workers, in the words of the government, have to live temporarily in their motherland." (quoting Zheng Rongde, 206)

[Mark Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

An attempt to describe one 24 hour period in the global economy as an interconnected web of causes and effects which was hit and miss overall. It was just a collection of anecdotes from many points of view, some more interesting and/or insightful than others. One example which was actually a pretty good narrative was the partnership between Napster and Ericsson as an example of an older, established tech business trying to join forces with a newbie tech startup just finding its feet. It was fascinating. Some were a little dry, though. Hence the "hit and miss."

[Andrew Woody Siemens · Rating 2 out of 5]

I almost feel like I should rate it higher, but just cant bring myself to it. it can be a fun read, but I think we can all see how connected our economies are without reading this book. Perhaps it could be a beneficial book for someone with limited understanding of the economy.

[Yully]

I'd like to read this one - sounds like The World Is Flat taken up a notch.

[Ami · Rating 1 out of 5]

This might actually be a good book. It's remarkable that I bothered starting to read a business book at all, so score one for that.

[Shannonry · Rating 4 out of 5]

may seem boring, but i like this kind of stuff. very good for basic understanding of fundamental economics.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating story about how globalism works, but it seems dated, we need a post-globalism approach, now

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not too bad, especially considering what has happenned since it was published in 2007.

[Batur · Rating 3 out of 5]

the one of the global economy, Altman shows how the system became localise well...

[John Peat · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's nothing quite like reading a book which attempts to predict the future (well - a bit) 10 years after it was written -0

[Ty · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

Informative, engaging, and well-written; it still was more disconnected than connected.