If You're Curious About These Questions...
You should listen to this audiobook
- Did you know that the economic shock of 2020 was so unprecedented it forced world leaders to rewrite the fundamental rules of global capitalism in a matter of weeks?
- Have you ever wondered what really happened behind closed doors as central banks and governments scrambled to prevent a total financial collapse during the pandemic's first year?
- Are you curious about how the dramatic shift in power between 2020 and 2021 changed the way we'll face the next global crisis?
Listen to Shutdown — Free Audiobook
Loading player...
Key Takeaways from Shutdown
- Understand the concept of a 'gray rhino' and discover why public health experts knew a catastrophic, globe-halting pandemic was an entirely predictable threat.
- Learn how widespread, willful unpreparedness—fueled by an underfunded WHO, a profit-driven healthcare system, and deep socioeconomic inequities—turned a virus into a global shutdown.
- Discover how China’s decisive, authoritarian mobilization to lock down Wuhan and rapidly build emergency infrastructure suppressed the virus and solidified the regime's political legitimacy.
- Examine why the slow, uncoordinated, and denial-driven responses from Western leaders left their nations critically vulnerable to the impending health crisis.
- Grasp the profound interconnected economic ripple effects of the pandemic, such as the sudden 65 percent drop in oil prices that instantly triggered a worldwide recession.
Shutdown — Full Chapter Overview
Chapter 1: Recommendation
Chapter 2: Deliberate, widespread unpreparedness let the virus grind global public life to a sudden standstill.
Chapter 3: China’s forceful response to Covid’s Wuhan outbreak firmly cemented the regime’s legitimacy.
Chapter 4: Across the West, responses to Covid were sluggish and disjointed.
Chapter 5: The US undertook drastic measures to preserve the global economy’s very existence as we once understood it.
Chapter 6: As the EU and US reeled under the pandemic’s new fiscal reality, China returned again to its upward path.
Chapter 7: Emerging markets endured using stress-tested ways of securing credit.
Chapter 8: In the fall of 2020, Covid surged anew across the US, worsening the nation’s wounds.
Chapter 9: The Covid story remains unfinished, yet a broad consensus has now emerged on how best to manage its economic fallout.
Shutdown Summary & Overview
Shutdown (2021) explores the unprecedented shock COVID-19 dealt the world economy. The story begins with the revelation of the disease in January 2020 by Chinese President Xi Jinping and ends precisely a year later with the inauguration of US President Joe Biden, and through this history, Shutdown shows how markets and governments reeled from the blow, how they regained their footing, and what we might learn for the next worldwide crisis.
Who Should Listen to Shutdown?
- News junkies and history buffs alike
- Those who know that economic policy matters
- Anyone seeking perspective on our tumultuous times
Books Similar to Shutdown
Readers who enjoyed this also liked these titles.
Crashed
★ 4.4 / 5 • 137 ratingsHow a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World
COVID-19: The Great Reset
★ 3.6 / 5 • 256 ratingsA vision for what the post-Covid world could look like
How Economics Explains the World
★ 4.0 / 5 • 150 ratingsA Short History of Humanity
How Countries Go Broke
★ 4.4 / 5 • 16 ratingsThe Big Cycle