At the dawn of the twenty-first century, Thomas Friedman declared globalization the new economic order in The World Is Flat. But the reign of globalization as we've known it is over, argues Financial Times columnist and CNN analyst Rana Foroohar, and the rise of local, regional, and home-grown business is now at hand.
From bare supermarket shelves to the shortage of PPE supplies, the pandemic brought the fragility of global trade and supply chains into stark relief. The tragic war in Ukraine and the political and economic chaos that followed further underlined the fragilities of globalization. The world, it turns out, isn't flat-in fact, it's quite bumpy.
The fragmentation has been coming for decades. Our neoliberal economic philosophy of prioritizing efficiency over resilience and profits over local prosperity has produced massive inequality, perilous economic insecurity, and distrust in the institutions of today. This philosophy, which underpinned the last half century of globalization, has run its course.
Now, the pendulum of history is swinging back, powered by place-based economics and a wave of technological innovations making it possible to keep operations, investment and wealth closer to home, wherever it may be. In Homecoming, Foroohar explores both the challenges and the possibilities of this new era, and how it can usher in a more equitable and prosperous future.
