How the World Ran Out of Everything

“Captivating… . A tale that will change how you look at the world.” — Mark Leibovich, author of This Town and Thank You For Your Servitude”Recent years have exposed the precarity of global supply chains. In his new book, Peter S. Goodman, the New York Times’s global economics correspondent, takes readers inside this system, analyzes the factors that made it so fragile, and argues that it is overdue for reform.” — Foreign Policy, “The Most Anticipated Books of 2024”“Tracks the supply chain disruptions of recent years, and in particular how efficient market theory led to too much concentration in a handful of places. It’s a smart and detailed look at the topic which hasn’t really had a deep reported dive since Barry Lynn’s The End of the Line back in 2005.” — Rana Foroohar, Financial Times, “Recommended Reading”“The Covid-19 pandemic exposed the fragility of supply chains, but this well-documented study shows how the problem has deep roots….This book should be in the hands of policymakers and economists before the next crisis emerges. Goodman is willing to ask difficult questions, and he amply demonstrates that low prices can come with high costs.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)“How the World Ran Out of Everything is a fascinating crash course in the global supply chain. Like Michael Lewis, Peter Goodman tells a business story in clear, lively prose. Here he shows how corporate America goosed its balance sheets with a system that minimized inventories and maximized stock prices, squeezing truck drivers and railroad workers and ultimately leaving consumers in the lurch when this fragile construct came crashing down. Read this book and you’ll end up a lot smarter and much angrier.” — Barbara Demick, author of Eat the Buddha and Nothing to Envy“[A] colorful and very readable look at how the Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc with supply chains.” — Wall Street Journal

Peter S. Goodman is the Global Economics Correspondent for the New York Times. He was previously the NYT’s European economics correspondent, based in London, and the national economics correspondent, based in New York, where he played a leading role in the paper’s award-winning coverage of the Great Recession, including a series that was a Pulitzer finalist. Previously, he covered the Internet bubble and bust as the Washington Post’s telecommunications reporter, and served as WashPo’s China-based Asian economics correspondent. He is the author of Davos Man and Past Due: The End of Easy Money and the Renewal of the American Economy. He graduated from Reed College and completed a master’s in Vietnamese history from the University of California, Berkeley.