Book: The End of the World is Only The Beginning

Kind of the polar opposite of "Factfulness," this 2022 book by Peter Zeihan argues that globalization has run its course, and now the world economy is headed for a new paradigm.

So far the author is all doom-and-gloom.  I hope he's not right.

I liked Rosling's optimism better, and it seemed pretty well documented.

The early chapters present a breezy, light-hearted (if overly simplistic) history of the rise of culture, but as of Chapter 5 Zeihan is seriously spinning out of control. He bemoans the decline in birth rate in industrialized societies, never once mentioning its rock-solid tie to infant mortality. He claims the change in demographics will be fatal to civilization, never once stopping to consider that mechanization means fewer people are needed to thresh the wheat.

Never mind issues of the carrying capacity of Mother Earth.

I hope this clown gets back on track. He's losing me.

The author makes the curious assertion that returning vets from WWI caused such a glut in the labor market that it contributed to the Great Depression.

For one thing, the timing is all wrong: 1918 to 1929 is eleven years. Second, the 1918 flu epidemic reduced surplus workers considerably. Third, wasn't the Depression caused by drought and over-fertilization leading to massive crop failures, compounded by wild reckless speculation in the Stock Market?

This author has not only gone off the rails, he's spilling toxic chemicals.

Every ten pages or so the author throws in a chart or graph to illustrate the point he's making, and I have NEVER ever seen so many totally unhelpful charts. Not a single one of them makes a lick of sense.

That's it. No reason to finish this pile of crap just to find things to complain about. I'm done.