Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World’s Economy

When the news first began to trickle out of China about a new virus in December 2019, risk-averse financial markets were alert to its potential for disruption. Yet they could never have predicted the total economic collapse that would follow in Covid-19’s wake.

In a matter of weeks, the world’s economy was brought to an abrupt halt. Central banks responded with unprecedented interventions, just to keep their economies on life-support.

The pandemic struck the three great global economic hubs – China, Europe and the United States. It posed a profound challenge to the emerging markets. The world found itself clinging to the promise of a miracle weapon in the form of an untried vaccine technology.

This book tells the story of that shutdown. We do not yet know how this story ends. In this fast-paced, compelling and at times shocking analysis, Adam Tooze surveys the wreckage, and looks at where we might be headed next.