Homecoming: The Path to Prosperity in a Post-Global World by Rana Foroohar.
Wow. What can I say about this book to get you to read it? When I first read Daniel Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow, I felt like every page was a new, fresh insight. It is the same with this book. Every page offers a fresh insight, a new piece of information, a surprising technology, a new bit of history, a really bright idea. The basic topic is the failure of the neo-liberal globalization of the free market economy.The author is a journalist, an editor for The Financial Times. She builds her case well. This is an excerpt from a review:
She says that for decades, the neoliberal economic philosophy of prioritizing efficiency over resilience and profits over local prosperity has produced massive inequality, persistent economic insecurity, and distrust in our institutions. Place-based economics and a wave of technological innovations now make it possible to keep operations, investment and wealth closer to home, wherever that may be. With the pendulum of history swinging back, Foroohar explores both the challenges and the possibilities of this new era, and how she says it can usher in a more equitable and prosperous future.
The problem is that by the time you are halfway through the book, you realize that the problems and potentials she describes are very complex. We humans have created an economic and political engine of extreme complexity. I am fairly bright, but most of this has simply escaped my notice over the past few decades. Given the scope of the problems, she is amazingly positive on the future prospects for change. But I am wondering just how many business leaders, economists and politicians have the capacity to grasp the scope of the problems she explains, and have the initiative to undertake these innovative efforts to move the world forward. How many would ever even pick up the book to begin to learn a little about global economic and social trends?
To encourage you to read the book, here is some of the content that impressed me.
China is the key threat to world order. China grew tremendously under the neoliberal free trade and fair exchange approach. And they took advantage of the rest of the world. The hope was that their participation in the global economy would also encourage them to adopt a more open and free society. The reverse is true. China and other parts of Asia have almost complete control of large segments of our economy, especially computer chip manufacturing, solar power, batteries, etc..
Xi Jinping, the current leader of China with a new lifetime office, claims to be building “a community of common destiny for all mankind” and wants Chinese-style techno authoritarianism to be copied by countries around the world. Xi has called on people with Chinese heritage anywhere on earth, no matter their citizenship, to join together as “sons and daughters of the Yellow Emperor” who are obliged to work for the “great rejuvenation” in whatever way the party deems fit.
Taiwan country controls 55% of global chip manufacturing capacity. And there is no question that China wants them back. At the same time, they are experimenting with new ways to share government participation and decision making. Ultimate transparency reigns, with all meeting agendas and minutes posted on the internet/ They use "quadratic voting" to get the general populace input on government decisions and legislation.
U.S. Healthcare - The United States has by far the largest healthcare costs in the world—about twice the level of most other developed nations. Our healthcare system is roughly the size of the entire French economy, but we don’t have the outcomes the French do; in fact, when ranked against other rich nations in terms of things like infant mortality, maternal mortality, and health in young people, the United States comes in toward the very bottom of the list.
Digital Banking. I had pretty much written off the bitcoin craze as a tulip bubble. She seems tremendous potential for the underlying technology to revolutionize banking.
Hockett, who has been an adviser on some of the digital currency projects just mentioned, hopes to move toward a system of “citizen central banking,” in which everyone, whether or not they have access to a traditional bank account, can have a government-administered digital wallet. “Not only would this end the problem of the ‘unbanked’—meaning people like Chaka—but it would also make the entire process of monetary policy work better,” he says. Instead of the Fed keeping rates low in such a way that allows giant companies to run up debt paying back rich shareholders, central bankers might be able to target the flow of money more specifically to where it is most needed. Essentially, we’d have the national, digital equivalent of a shoebox bank, for all citizens. And different places could have different shoeboxes,
Local economics - Production and distribution all local. Vertical farming, 3d printed homes, "Slow Cities".
Food as a defense industry. DARPA is working on technology to create food from air, water and microbes as a key defense move. A more resilient economy
Education - we need to focus on the skills needed in the coming changes - not general purpose arts degrees that burden families with education loans for decades.
Conclusion
I could go on, but I trust you get the picture. Amazing collection of information. Amazing insight into how economic and political instructions work. Very positive and hopeful that we can actually make this all work. I pray that she is right. READ the book. Thanks.
YouTube Options
For my reading challenged friends, here are a few YouTube interviews and presentations that will give you the basic gist of her work.
https://youtu.be/bzA1ZmqZo9c
In her illuminating new book, HOMECOMING: The Path to Prosperity in a Post Global World, the Financial Times Global Business Columnist Rana Foroohar shares her views on why the great globalization experiment has failed and what it really means for the US and the world economy. She joins the podcast to talk about her book, the genesis of her thesis, and chronicles her career as an international journalist for some of the world's leading financial publications.
https://youtu.be/rUxnOHcklPQ The case against big tech firms - Rana Foroohar Ways to change the world
https://youtu.be/Z6FczBh8JVM Rana Foroohar: The Rise of Finance and the Fall of American Business
https://youtu.be/8KTCCYHb21I Rana Foroohar: The Path to Prosperity in a Post-Global World - Commonwealth Club
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