The Doom Loop: Why the World Economic Order Is Spiraling into Disorder

Global economic power is shifting, liberal market-oriented democracies face growing domestic turmoil and international trade and financial integration is increasingly uncertain. How did we get here?

On Thursday, February 26 from 2:00-4:00 PM, join us for an in-person book talk featuring economist Eswar Prasad, Tolani Senior Professor of Trade Policy and Professor of Economics at Cornell University.

In his newly released book, The Doom Loop, Prasad argues that the very forces that we long believed could stabilize the world order are fueling its destabilization. His book claims that rather than promoting shared prosperity, globalization has instead deepened economic inequality, stoked political backlash and prompted escalating trade wars. Institutions like the International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization, founded to foster international cooperation, have struggled to adapt to twenty-first-century realities. The rise of “middle power” countries like India, Brazil and Indonesia once suggested a stable multipolar future, but today, such nations are increasingly pressured to align themselves with either the US or China.

Prasad argues that we are caught in a destructive feedback loop between economics, domestic politics and geopolitics. The Doom Loop offers a clear-eyed and bracing account of a world spiraling into disorder, and makes it clear that old solutions cannot pull us out—we need radically new solutions to solve the world’s problems.

Co-hosted by the Boston University Global Development Policy Center, Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies and the Institute for Economic Development, the event will feature a moderated fireside chat discussing these topics, opportunities for audience Q&A and a book signing with Eswar Prasad. The first 15 participants will receive a free copy of The Doom Loop.

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Host or Publisher Boston University Global Development Policy Center