Rana Foroohar

At the dawn of the twenty-first century, Thomas Friedman declared globalization the new economic order in The World Is Flat. But the reign of globalization as we've known it is over, argues Financial Times columnist and CNN analyst Rana Foroohar. Drawing from her upcoming book, Homecoming: The Path to Prosperity in a Post Global World, she lays out how the rise of local, regional, and home-grown business is now at hand.

The pandemic brought the fragility of global trade and supply chains into stark relief. It also illuminated the long-time vulnerabilities in our neoliberal economic philosophy, one that prioritizes efficiency over resilience and global profits over local prosperity. It's a model that produced massive wealth, inequality, environmental degradation, political bifurcation, and distrust in today's institutions.

But the pendulum of history is swinging back, powered by geopolitical, demographic, and financial changes, as well as new place-based economics and a wave of technological innovations — from decentralized manufacturing and digital currencies to the internet of things and blockchain. The shape of companies, trade routes, national economies, and global politics are changing. In this engagement, Foroohar will sketch out the shape of this new tripolar world, calling on her exclusive conversations with top US and EU officials, as well as color reporting from China, America, Germany, the UK, and beyond.

The war in Ukraine has forced every country in the world to ramp up the shift to clean energy. This comes with tremendous benefits but also challenges. How quickly can we shift to green in a deglobalizing world? Will climate change be inflationary, or deflationary? Who will pick up the costs of the shift — consumers, companies, or countries? And who will reap the most benefits? Calling on her new book, Homecoming: The Path to Prosperity in a Post Global World, as well as her FT columns on climate change as the most powerful force in markets today, Foroohar will outline the next big economic shift, to a carbon neutral world, and how it will play out for markets, business, and Main Street.

Over the last forty years, we've gotten used to consuming more things, more cheaply, than ever before — from food to fashion to electronic gadgets. But this has come with huge downsides, from wage stagnation to environmental risks and human rights violations. Now, with the rise of ESG investing, regulators and financial markets are beginning to tally the true cost of the old model. And as countries roll out new ESG rules, we will see major changes in trade patterns, supply chains, tax codes, share prices, and labor markets. The next global financial disruption won't come from banks or China — but from the breakdown of the last half-century of neoliberal capitalism. Join Rana Foroohar as she shares her take on what it will all mean for companies, countries, consumers, and citizens.

It used to be that governments ran the world. But the rise of the internet has allowed companies, namely the Big Tech platforms, to rival nations in terms of size and economic power. As we move into a new era of decentralized technologies like blockchain, digital currencies, and 3-D printing, our world will change further. Borders are falling away, and we are all becoming nodes on various networks. Old institutions and power structures will fall, and new ones will emerge. In this new world, cities are issuing their own currencies, and companies will have their own foreign policy. The boundaries between consumers and citizens, local and global, will blur, and a more interconnected yet heterodox world will emerge. Get ahead of the curve with Rana Foroohar as she lays out what this new world will mean for markets, politics, and society.