Economist Adam Tooze.Handout
By the time the pandemic hit in the spring of 2020, Adam Tooze writes in his latest book, Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World’s Economy, “it was no longer clear that the great gods of growth were on the side of the West.”
He calls the ensuing turmoil – in the markets and throughout the economy, within households and offices and all over the globe – ”the polycrisis,” an event that has recalibrated the status ladder of global influence. In Prof. Tooze’s mind, the question isn’t when it will end but how we plan to pull out of it, and at what cost and risk. Any exit from COVID-19 will require humility and a rebalancing of power – never the West’s strong suit.
Prof. Tooze was born in London and attended Cambridge University, where he earned a degree in economics in 1989 before moving on to a PhD in history at the London School of Economics. His teaching career – Cambridge, Yale and now…
