Sonic Boom: Globalization at Mach Speed

Heres the good news: Democracy is spreading, and most economies in the world are now free. Superpowers are competing economically rather than fighting militarily. Stuff we need is getting better and cheaper. Increased opportunities for women are doubling the worlds supply of ideas. Heres the downside: Internationally linked computerized economies mean twenty-four-hour stress. Frequent shakeups in industries will cause more job insecurity. Climate change is about to accelerate global disruption.

Writing with the “lively wit and contrarian insight” (The Wall Street Journal) that are his trademarks, Gregg Easterbrook welcomes you to the Sonic Boom Economy: an explosive time of unprecedented growth, progress, and change that will leave all of us at one time or another anxious, uneasy, and stressed out of our minds. The financial crisis that started in 2008 was just the beginning–and a bellwether for the future. As we make our way out of the recession, continuing globalization, interconnectedness, and technological advances will mean great prosperity, ingenuity, dislocation, instability, and financial distress–all at once.

Shenzen, China, has become the fourth largest port in the world, in a single generation creating both income and upheaval; Waltham, Massachusetts, is booming as New Englands answer to Silicon Valley, but its no longer hospitable to workers in fading mercantile industries; and Yakutsk, Russia, the coldest major city in the world, may benefit from global warming while Houston becomes too stifling to inhabit and Florida a swampland. Yet with crucial optimism, Sonic Boom offers concrete examples and indispensable advice on how to be on the winning side of these dizzying times. Heres how to innovate (in Erie, Pennsylvania, a huge old-fashioned factory uses new methods to build high-efficiency, low-polluting railroad locomotives), diversify (General Electric went from selling lightbulbs to jets to green tech), and use common sense (the French health-care system, which pays doctors for phone and email consultations, ultimately makes treatment faster and cheaper). Gregg Easterbrook, whom Forbes called “the best writer on complex topics in the United States,” definitively captures this unnerving period in economic history in an important book thats as eye-opening as it is hopeful, as provocative as it is ultimately positive.

Easterbrook, an author and contributing editor to The Atlantic Monthly and The New Republic, argues that the world will become even more globalized, that the next wave of global change will be economically prosperous, but that problems like job instability, economic insecurity, and a disruption of home and work life are likely to worsen. Each chapter focuses one city from around the world that represents a specific global economic trend, such as Erie, Pennsylvania, where a factory uses new methods to build high-efficiency, low-polluting railroad locomotives; Yakutsk, Russia, the coldest major city in the world, which is benefiting from climate change; Shenzhen, China, which has become the fourth largest port in the world; and Leipzig, Germany, which houses the world's largest solar power facility. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Writing with the lively wit and contrarian insight ("The Wall Street Journal") that are his trademarks, Easterbrook argues that the West is about to enter the most powerful economic boom in history that will bring with it unprecedented levels of anxiety.

What can a spell-checker tell you about economic trends? Why is the world's supply of ideas about to double? What did America get right in the nineteenth century that it's getting wrong in thetwenty-first? If Karl Marx were alive today, would he be hosting a show on Fox News?

These are just a few of the provocative questions asked by "Sonic Boom, " a (mainly)optimistic look at the near future. "Sonic Boom" tells why the world's economy is likely to be just fine, with prosperity increasing; why globalization will soon drive us evencrazier than it does today; why "a chaotic, raucous, unpredictable, stress-inducing, free, prosperous, well-informed, and smart future is coming." The book is rich with specific examples and advice onhow to navigate your own way through the craziness that's ahead. "Forbes" calls Gregg Easterbrook "the best writer on complex topics in the United States,"and "Sonic Boom" will show you why.

There are signs the recession is about to end. So what comes next? Growth will resume. But economic uncertainty will worsen, making what comes next not just a boom but a nerve-shattering SONIC BOOM.

 

Gregg Easterbrook – who "writes nothing that is not brilliant" (Chicago Tribune) – is a fount of unconventional wisdom, and over time, he is almost always proven right. Throughout 2008 and 2009, as the global economy was contracting and the experts were panicking, Easterbrook worked on a book saying prosperity is about to make its next big leap. Will he be right again?

 

SONIC BOOM: Globalization at Mach Speed presents three basic insights. First, if you don't like globalization, brace yourself, because globalization has barely started. Easterbrook contends the world is about to become far more globally linked. Second, the next wave of global change will be primarily positive: economic prosperity, knowledge and freedom will increase more in the next 50 years than in all of human history to this point. But before you celebrate, Easterbrook further warns that the next phase of global change is going to drive us crazy. Most things will be good for most people – but nothing will seem certain for anyone.

 

Each SONIC BOOM chapter is based on examples of cities around the world – in the United States, Europe, Russia, China, South America – that represent a significant Sonic Boom trend. With a terrific sense of humor, pitch-perfect reporting and clear, elegant prose, Easterbrook explains why economic recovery is on the horizon but why the next phase of global change will also give everyone one hell of a headache.  Forbes calls Easterbrook "the best writer on complex topics in the United States" and SONIC BOOM will show you why.

There are signs the recession is about to end. So what comes next? Growth will resume. But economic uncertainty will worsen, making what comes next not just a boom but a nerve-shattering SONIC BOOM.

 

Gregg Easterbrook – who "writes nothing that is not brilliant" (Chicago Tribune) – is a fount of unconventional wisdom, and over time, he is almost always proven right. Throughout 2008 and 2009, as the global economy was contracting and the experts were panicking, Easterbrook worked on a book saying prosperity is about to make its next big leap. Will he be right again?

 

SONIC BOOM: Globalization at Mach Speed presents three basic insights. First, if you don't like globalization, brace yourself, because globalization has barely started. Easterbrook contends the world is about to become far more globally linked. Second, the next wave of global change will be primarily positive: economic prosperity, knowledge and freedom will increase more in the next 50 years than in all of human history to this point. But before you celebrate, Easterbrook further warns that the next phase of global change is going to drive us crazy. Most things will be good for most people – but nothing will seem certain for anyone.

 

Each SONIC BOOM chapter is based on examples of cities around the world – in the United States, Europe, Russia, China, South America – that represent a significant Sonic Boom trend. With a terrific sense of humor, pitch-perfect reporting and clear, elegant prose, Easterbrook explains why economic recovery is on the horizon but why the next phase of global change will also give everyone one hell of a headache.  Forbes calls Easterbrook "the best writer on complex topics in the United States" and SONIC BOOM will show you why.