Plus get our latest book recommendations, author news, and competitions right to your inbox.
Table of Contents
About The Book
'An insightful playbook for getting out of the permacrisis we seem mired in’ - Walter Isaacson
‘A sensible plan for reform that can help us create a fairer and more equitable world’ - Sheryl Sandberg
Do you feel like we’re in a permacrisis? Chances are you feel some anxiety about the state of the world. Gordon Brown, Mohamed A. El-Erian and Michael Spence certainly did.
Three of the most internationally respected and experienced thinkers of our time, these friends found their pandemic Zooms increasingly focused on a cascade of crises: sputtering growth, surging inflation, poor policy responses, an escalating climate emergency, worsening inequality, increasing nationalism and a decline in global co-operation.
They shared their fears and frustrations. And the more they talked, the more they realised that while past mistakes had set the world on this bumpy course, a better path leading to a brighter future exists. Informed by their different perspectives, they sought a common goal: achievable solutions to fix our fractured world. This book is the product of that thinking.
At the heart of today’s permacrisis are broken approaches to growth, economic management, and governance. While these approaches are broken, they are not beyond repair. An explanation of where we’ve gone wrong, and a provocative, inspiring plan to do nothing less than change the world, Permacrisis: A Plan to Fix a Fractured World, written with Reid Lidow, sets out how we can prevent crises and better manage the future for the benefit of the many and not the few.
The longer a problem goes unresolved, the worse it will get; that’s what happens in a permacrisis – and that’s why we must act now.
‘A sensible plan for reform that can help us create a fairer and more equitable world’ - Sheryl Sandberg
Do you feel like we’re in a permacrisis? Chances are you feel some anxiety about the state of the world. Gordon Brown, Mohamed A. El-Erian and Michael Spence certainly did.
Three of the most internationally respected and experienced thinkers of our time, these friends found their pandemic Zooms increasingly focused on a cascade of crises: sputtering growth, surging inflation, poor policy responses, an escalating climate emergency, worsening inequality, increasing nationalism and a decline in global co-operation.
They shared their fears and frustrations. And the more they talked, the more they realised that while past mistakes had set the world on this bumpy course, a better path leading to a brighter future exists. Informed by their different perspectives, they sought a common goal: achievable solutions to fix our fractured world. This book is the product of that thinking.
At the heart of today’s permacrisis are broken approaches to growth, economic management, and governance. While these approaches are broken, they are not beyond repair. An explanation of where we’ve gone wrong, and a provocative, inspiring plan to do nothing less than change the world, Permacrisis: A Plan to Fix a Fractured World, written with Reid Lidow, sets out how we can prevent crises and better manage the future for the benefit of the many and not the few.
The longer a problem goes unresolved, the worse it will get; that’s what happens in a permacrisis – and that’s why we must act now.
About The Authors
Tom Miller
Gordon Brown was Chancellor of the Exchequer, a role he held for more than a decade, then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He is credited with preventing a second Great Depression through his leadership at the 2009 London G20 summit where he mobilised global leaders to walk the world back from the financial brink. Today he is fully engaged in international development work serving as the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, spearheading efforts to deliver a quality and inclusive education for all of the world's children, and as the World Health Organization's Ambassador for Global Health Finance. Brown has a PhD in History from the University of Edinburgh. A Member of Parliament between 1983 and 2015, he lives in Fife, Scotland, and is married to Sarah, and the couple have two teenagers.
Mohamed A. El-Erian is the President of Queens’ College, University of Cambridge. Since 2014, he has served as Chief Economic Advisor at Allianz, the corporate parent of PIMCO where he formerly served as Chief Executive and Co-chief Investment Officer. He is Chair of Gramercy Fund Management, a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion and a Financial Times contributing editor. He is a Senior Global Fellow at the Lauder Institute and the Rene M. Kern Practice Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He was previously a deputy director at the International Monetary Fund, a managing director at Solomon Smith Barney/Citigroup, and President and CEO of Harvard Management Company. From 2012 to 2017, Dr El-Erian served as Chair of President Obama’s Global Development Council. His books When Markets Collide (2008) and The Only Game in Town (2016) were New York Times bestsellers.
Michael Spence is the Philip H. Knight Professor Emeritus of Management in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, a Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, and a Council on Foreign Relations Distinguished Visiting Fellow. He is an adjunct professor at Bocconi University and an honorary fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. In 2001, Spence received the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his work in the field of information economics. He is the author of The Next Convergence: The Future of Economic Growth in a Multispeed World (2011). Spence served as Dean of the Stanford Business School from 1990 to 1999 and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard from 1984 to 1990. He is a recipient of the John Kenneth Galbraith Prize for excellence in teaching and the John Bates Clark Medal recognising American economists under forty.
Product Details
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK (December 5, 2023)
- Length: 336 pages
- ISBN13: 9781398525627
Raves and Reviews
'Three of the world’s greatest economic leaders have put their brilliant minds together to produce this insightful playbook for getting out of the permacrisis we seem mired in. It’s a timely guide to the type of co-operation, both at home and internationally, that is now vitally necessary’
– Walter Isaacson
‘Permacrisis recognises that a growth policy that also addresses issues like gender equity and climate change can create a sustainable economy that raises all boats. This hopeful book puts forward a sensible plan for reform that can help us create a fairer and more equitable world’
– Sheryl Sandberg
‘This excellent book presents a new growth model that is sustainable and inclusive, and where technology lifts jobs for all. Don’t miss reading it!’
– Nouriel Roubini
‘Brown, El-Erian and Spence show us in vivid detail what needs fixing in a world of perpetual economic crisis. More importantly, they provide solutions that even today’s chronically dysfunctional governments can credibly reach. Permacrisis offers hope and good sense in equal measure’
– Ian Bremmer
‘A bold and ambitious agenda for change to create a more sustainable and equitable world’
– James Manyika
Resources and Downloads
High Resolution Images
- Book Cover Image (jpg): Permacrisis Export/Airside Paperback 9781398525627
- Author Photo (jpg): Gordon Brown Tom Miller(0.2 MB)
Any use of an author photo must include its respective photo credit
