Shutdown - How Covid Shook the World's Economy (Broché)

The shocks of 2020 were great and small, disrupting the world economy, international relations, and the daily lives of virtually everyone on the planet. Never before did the entire global economy contract by 20 percent in a matter of weeks, nor in the historic record of modern capitalism was there a moment in which 95 percent of the world's economies were suffering all at the same time. Across the world, hundreds of millions lost their jobs.
And over it all loomed the specter of pandemic, and death. By focusing on finance and business, Adam Tooze sets the pandemic story in a new frame that casts a sobering light on how unprepared the world was in the crisis. The virus attacked the global economy with as much ferocity as it did our health, and there is no vaccine arriving to address that. Tooze's special gift is to show how social organization, political interests, economic policy, and international affairs interact with devastating human consequences, from your local hospital to the World Bank.
He starkly analyzes what happened when the pandemic collided with national politics, the effect of monetary policies, and the role played by climate change. Finally, he proves how no unilateral declaration of independence or isolation can extricate any modern country from the global web of travel, goods, services, and finance.