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Stephen D. King
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Grave New World: The End of Globalization, the Return of History Kindle Edition

by Stephen D. King (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 130 ratings
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A controversial look at the end of globalization and what it means for prosperity, peace, and the global economic order

Globalization, long considered the best route to economic prosperity, is not inevitable. An approach built on the principles of free trade and, since the 1980s, open capital markets, is beginning to fracture. With disappointing growth rates across the Western world, nations are no longer willing to sacrifice national interests for global growth; nor are their leaders able—or willing—to sell the idea of pursuing a global agenda of prosperity to their citizens.

Combining historical analysis with current affairs, economist Stephen D. King provides a provocative and engaging account of why globalization is being rejected, what a world ruled by rival states with conflicting aims might look like, and how the pursuit of nationalist agendas could result in a race to the bottom. King argues that a rejection of globalization and a return to “autarky” will risk economic and political conflict, and he uses lessons from history to gauge how best to avoid the worst possible outcomes.
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  1. Print length
    303 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Yale University Press
  4. Publication date
    May 22, 2018
  5. File size
    895 KB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
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  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“A well-written and thought-provoking book.”—Economist

"[Grave New World] sets out the argument strongly and clearly. . . . King correctly takes aim at the very idea that there is a single international community with an agreed set of aims and ideas, or even a united west when it comes to important issues such as foreign policy and projecting 'Western values' in the Middle East. . . . The truth is, as usual, somewhere between despair and ebullience."—Alan Beattie, Financial Times

"Where it succeeds is the ease with which the reader can digest complex ideas. King is a clear, confident guide, weaving his way through history and joining the dots with panache. This story of our time has a cliff-hanger ending. Will it be a grave new world?"—Philip Aldrick, Times

"No economist ever lost his reputation by erring on the side of pessimism. In this book, the already much-lauded, HSBC-based thinker, Stephen D. King, warns the West of a host of political-economic horrors on the horizon. . . . This is a book to open that debate, not close it."—Andrew Marr, Sunday Times

"A well-argued and credibly pessimistic book."—Martin Wolf, Financial Times

"The era of globalisation might be over, warns this gripping and clearly argued guide to the possible future."—Sunday Times, "Summer Reading 2017"

“Well-argued and credibly pessimistic.”— Martin Wolf, Books of the Year 2017: Economics, Financial Times

"Smart and timely . . . hugely important."—Raleigh News and Observer

"Stephen D. King’s Grave New World: The End of Globalization, the Return of History is a nuanced nonfiction addition to this literature of discontent."—Los Angeles Review of Books

LONGLISTED FOR THE FT-MCKINSEY BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017


"In a powerful and well-written book that draws on important historical insights, Stephen King explains why globalization is not as secure as many would have led you to believe – especially in a world where old and new political forces, as well as disruptive technologies, are aggressively competing to re-shape relationships, institutions and ideas. This is a must-read book for those wondering about the future functioning of the world economy and what it could entail not just for the global economic order but, also, the well-being of individual countries."—Mohamed El-Erian, Chief Economic Adviser, Allianz SE and author of The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability and Avoiding the Next Collapse



"Prophetic, brilliant and disturbing. Required reading to prepare for the world of the (very near) future."—Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads: A New History of the World



"King reminds us both  that over millennia there have been previous waves of globalization and that, whilst they may have had different drivers, they fall as well as rise. And the falls have not been pretty. As a world , we have benefited greatly from the current wave over the last seven decades, and would if it continued. But that is far from inevitable and we must understand the longer history and the forces which are now putting this wave in serious question. King's analysis is fascinating and fun in its story telling and profoundly important in its substance."—Lord Nicholas Stern, President of the British Academy, I.G.Patel Professor of Economics and Government at the LSE, and cross-bench member of the House of Lords

"What will replace the rules-based order of the past seven decades, as the era of globalization – and of prosperity and relative peace – shudders to an end? Stephen King's compelling and sobering exploration of recent trends makes it clear that the most likely outcomes of the crisis of globalization are deeply troubling. A world without a strong EU, WTO, NATO, and without American leadership, is going to be uncertain, dangerous and impoverished."—Diane Coyle, professor of economics, University of Manchester and author of GDP: A Brief But Affectionate History



"Stephen King has written a very important book at a crucial time. His vital historical perspective provides a unique contribution to current debates and his arguments deserve broad consideration."—Lawrence H. Summers, former US Treasury Secretary

About the Author

Stephen D. King is the author of When the Money Runs Out: The End of Western Affluence and Losing Control: The Emerging Threats to Western Prosperity. He combines his role as HSBC's Senior Economic Adviser with journalism and consultancy work, and is a specialist adviser to the House of Commons Treasury Committee.

Shaun Grindell, actor and Earphones Award-winning narrator, was born and raised in Southampton, England. His training includes the Calland School of Speech and Drama and the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in London. He has been seen on stage in London and Las Vegas.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07C11QK1V
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Yale University Press; Reprint edition (May 22, 2018)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 22, 2018
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 895 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 303 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 130 ratings

About the author

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Stephen D. King

Stephen D. King

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Stephen D King (@kingeconomist) is a British economist and author. His fourth book, We Need to Talk About Inflation, was published in April 2023. His last book, Grave New World (first published in May 2017 and later longlisted for the FT/McKinsey business book of the year) presciently anticipated globalisation's reversal. He writes a regular column in the London Evening Standard (https://www.standard.co.uk/author/stephen-king), contributes to other newspapers and magazines around the world and appears frequently on both television and radio. Now HSBC's Senior Economic Adviser, he was for many years HSBC's Group Chief Economist. Between 2015 and 2017, he was a Special Adviser to the House of Commons Treasury Committee. He sits on the Council of Management of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research and is a Director of Henderson Eurotrust. Public speaking enquiries should be addressed to either the London Speaker Bureau (http://londonspeakerbureau.com/) or the Insight Bureau (http://www.insightbureau.com/)

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
130 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

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GA Seydack
5.0 out of 5 stars Problem solving: First acknowledge the mess we’re in ....
Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2018
Verified Purchase
The author tells it like it is, the global mess we’re in, and digging ourselves in ever deeper. Deep, comprehensive insights presented in a concise manner. The solution? It’ll be for us to engineer, and it ain’t gonna be easy.
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Brandon G. Adams
4.0 out of 5 stars Chapter 10 is Gold
Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2017
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Everyone should buy this book solely to read Chapter 10, “Debasing the Coinage”, p190-212. This chapter alone is easily worth full retail, and this is not surprising, as this is the area we would expect Stephen King to know best.
King makes a compelling case in this chapter that modern monetary interventions have devolved into a modern form of Beggar-Thy-Neighbor.
He notes that, “although stock markets made impressive gains in the years after the financial crisis, capital spending in the developed world remained largely moribund. Instead, the most important channel became the exchange rate.”
He continues, “In a world in which most economies are weak simultaneously, however, printing money to drive the exchange rate lower risks becoming a zero-sum game: one country’s competitive gain is another’s competitive loss; one country’s inflationary increase is another’s deflationary problem. And so it has proved.” Later: “Put another way, monetary policy has – unwittingly – become a mechanism by which countries wage financial warfare.”
Chapter 10, overall, is masterful, ending with the simple but powerful observation that, “In the event of another recession, central banks will have no option but to do more in the way of quantitative easing: knowing this, financial asset values will remain inflated, regardless of underlying economic performance. Under these conditions, listed companies will continue to gain access to financial capital on favorable terms, whether or not that capital is deployed wisely… Overall, the result is likely to be persistent misallocation of capital and thus a sustained period of productivity underperformance.”
As for the rest of the book, I’d say… it depends. For me, it comes down to a philosophical argument about the modern book. I believe that much of the reason people valued books throughout history is that books summarized and synthesized, in one place, knowledge about a particular topic. It’s no longer clear that this function of books is valuable. People can get, on the Internet, any information they want, precisely tailored to their interests and backgrounds, in an instant and for free. So my criticism of the rest of the book is that while there is some strong original content there, a bit too much of it for my taste consists of a rehash of well-known 20th Century historical events.
13 people found this helpful
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jorge ivaldy
5.0 out of 5 stars Perspectivas diferentes
Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2018
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El libro te pone en perspectiva el mundo que que vivimos desde el punto de vista macroeconómico y te ayuda a entenderlo mejor
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Enrique Maroto
4.0 out of 5 stars A Critique On Globalization
Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2020
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King masterfully walks you through the economic and social history of the last centuries to land at the current state of malfunctioning globalization.

The Post World War II institutions need to be overhauled in order to deal with new problems and actors. The old globalization architecture is losing credibility and has become ineffective.

At home, most countries have to create institutions that need to balance out the benefits of globalization in a more equitable way in order to make economies more sustainable.
One person found this helpful
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David S. Wellhauser
2.0 out of 5 stars Too Far to the Left
Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2017
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The history leading up to globalization was worthwhile but the leftist take on globalization was not helpful and the contempt for the people was difficult to swallow. Then there was the dated argument of China taking over the world.

All in all a poor effort.
7 people found this helpful
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Joel
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent read
Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2017
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Excellent Read; a good and thought provoking book. A decent grasp of economics is needed to get at the heart of what the authors is saying.
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jodyt
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2018
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Very good. I learned a lot.
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Stanislav Borzykh
4.0 out of 5 stars I think it's useful book to review our rosy vision of this world
Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2017
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I think it's useful book to review our rosy vision of this world. Facts are facts and Stephen D. King makes right conclusions. However I would like to advise my work for even more dramatic view:
https://www.amazon.com/Civilization-its-fate-civilization-doomed-ebook/dp/B01NGUHCCD/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1511600683&sr=8-1&keywords=borzykh
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Top reviews from other countries

Sigmund Roseth
5.0 out of 5 stars EXCELLENT; UP-TO-DATE HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF GLOBALIZATION AND ITS FUTURE ...
Reviewed in Canada on July 10, 2017
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EXCELLENT; UP-TO-DATE HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF GLOBALIZATION AND ITS FUTURE (OR NOT).
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Shoeburymike
5.0 out of 5 stars Points us into direction we will be going after Brexit - Downwards!!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 30, 2017
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I bought this after seeing Stephen D King being interviewed on the Hard Talk show by Stephen Saccur, took it on holiday with me, and read it cover to cover, including the humorous parody at the end looking forward to 2044, whic I will say no more bout as it may spoil it for some people!
Despite being a 78 year old fairly 'savvy' person both politically and economically, I fund his approach very readable and understandable. He reinforced my personal views - without actually saying it in so many words - that there must be something wrong with the mentality of the English persona in the way they blissfully go through history causing damage and disruption whenever they decide on a course of action, demanding what they 'want' rather than what they need! From an economic point of the view puts the Brexit referendum into a perspective I hadn't thought of before, just repeating the historical mistakes of the past. I didn't agree with him 100% on his take on some of the past parliamentarian heavyweights like Enoch Powell, but I forgive him that as history had been re-written on him by the time that Stephen got out of nappies! Powell was a prophet not a agent provocateur!
5 people found this helpful
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dsj
1.0 out of 5 stars Don't bother
Reviewed in Canada on January 27, 2019
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A rambling and at times incoherent restatement of everything we already knew about globalization.
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Be an pub expert on economics and get a degree.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 10, 2018
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If you want to understand "Globalisation" and then be able to argue about it in the pub then read it. Carefully. If you want to learn more about economics and obtain a degree, then read all the referenced papers. No matter what your need is, it is easy to read and stimulating for the brain. An excellent text book.
5 people found this helpful
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Brian Yarwood
5.0 out of 5 stars True facts - Political /economic important read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 8, 2018
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All people in a democracy should be able read
and understand the contents of this book to be allowed
to vote especially in a referendum with economic consequences but unfortunately they don’t and wouldn’t want to
because they are interested in what they personally
want or haven’t sufficient mental abilities to comprehend the book

That why democracy don’t wy
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