Signals : How Everyday Sighn Can Help Us Navigate The Worlds Turbulent Economy

Description

In Signals, Pippa Malmgren shows us how economic signals are everywhere, from magazine covers to grocery stores to military events. They reveal the story of the world economy. The rising price but shrinking size of a steak, a candy bar and an apartment not only causes pain at home, they also propel some nations to deploy their militaries to secure resources and protect their citizens from higher prices. Malmgren argues that by being alert to signals anyone can start to navigate through the turbulence to find the treasures of the world economy instead of being overwhelmed and surprised by it. She points out that our daily lives are informed and affected by the ongoing battle between inflation and deflation created by central bankers. As the cost of living continues to go up for consumers while their income still falls, a pattern is created that breaks the vital social contracts between citizens and their governments that sets in motion many seemingly unrelated outcomes: social unrest in emerging markets, the movement of manufacturing jobs back to the US and the West and ultimately, higher food and energy prices. If growth and innovation presents the only solutions, the key question becomes whether governments are hostile or hospitable to these efforts. Malmgren succeeds in weaving a holistic picture that shows how economics, politics and even defence are all interrelated, if not inseparable. Using diverse examples from a Vogue magazine cover to a protest by a Tibetan monk to eloquently argue and underline her many prescient points about the signals the economy was sending out before and after the economic downturn of 2008, signals is not only hugely relevant, it is also exceptionally readable.