{ "title": "Into the Maelstrom", "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2024/09/book-review-into-the-maelstrom-wellisz", "canonical": "https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2024/09/book-review-into-the-maelstrom-wellisz", "overlayPath": "/en/publications/fandd/issues/2024/09/book-review-into-the-maelstrom-wellisz/index.md", "summary": "How the World Ran Out of Everything", "sections": [ { "heading": "Overview", "content": "- Title reviewed: How the World Ran Out of Everything by Peter S. Goodman.\n- Review author: CHRIS WELLISZ.\n- Publication: F&D Magazine, September 2024.\n- Book details as given: Mariner Books, New York and Boston, 2024, 406 pp., $37.\n- Scope: Narrative account of global supply-chain disruptions revealed by the COVID-19 pandemic and their social and economic consequences." }, { "heading": "Key narratives and reporting focus", "content": "- Ground-level reporting tracing disruptions from factories in Shenzhen, China, to ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and inland truck stops and rail yards.\n- Central anecdote: the travails of Hagan Walker, an entrepreneur attempting to ship an order of plastic toys from China to U.S. customers in time for the holiday season.\n- Human-impact vignettes:\n - Sailors marooned aboard an idle container ship.\n - A California farmer unable to deliver almonds to customers in the Middle East.\n - A railroad worker refused paid leave to care for a sick child.\n - Workers in meat-packing plants exposed to horrific conditions and pandemic-related deaths, including an immigrant from Myanmar who didn’t live to see her grandchild born." }, { "heading": "Explanations of causes and structural context", "content": "- Historical and technological drivers surveyed:\n - Economic reforms that enabled China’s export-led transformation.\n - The invention of the shipping container and its effects on reducing time and expense of oceanic freight.\n - The spread of just-in-time manufacturing and how extreme inventory minimization increased vulnerability to disruptions.\n- Role of management practices and incentives:\n - Critique of management consultants who promoted inventory and payroll cuts under lean manufacturing.\n - Identification of the “investor class” as the principal antagonist in Goodman’s framing, described as pursuing profit at consumers’ and workers’ expense." }, { "heading": "Critiques of the book’s perspective and tone", "content": "- Praise:\n - Goodman’s storytelling, vivid details, and on-the-ground reporting are described as gripping and enlightening.\n- Criticism:\n - Recurrent denunciations characterized as “somewhat tedious” — specifically phrases used by the reviewer: “unregulated greed” and “cold-blooded exploitation.”\n - Final chapters on re-shoring and near-shoring presented quickly and the book’s conclusion judged pessimistic.\n - Goodman stops short of advocating abolition of capitalism; instead offers limited institutional remedies." }, { "heading": "Policy prescriptions and concluding recommendations (as presented in the book and noted by the reviewer)", "content": "- Goodman’s concluding prescriptions (as reported by the reviewer):\n - Stricter antitrust enforcement.\n - Stronger labor unions.\n- Tone of conclusion:\n - Described as somewhat perfunctory and pessimistic, given the reviewer’s framing that the root problem is the “pursuit of profit.”\n\nSource: Review by CHRIS WELLISZ of How the World Ran Out of Everything by Peter S. Goodman; F&D Magazine, September 2024.\n\n---\n\n Content in this bundle\n\n- Into the Maelstrom\n - Into the Maelstrom (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n - Into the Maelstrom (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n\n---\n\nSource: https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2024/09/book-review-into-the-maelstrom-wellisz" } ], "bullets": [ "[Markdown version](/en/publications/fandd/issues/2024/09/book-review-into-the-maelstrom-wellisz/index.md)", "[Structured JSON version](/en/publications/fandd/issues/2024/09/book-review-into-the-maelstrom-wellisz/index.json)", "[Bundle manifest](/en/publications/fandd/issues/2024/09/book-review-into-the-maelstrom-wellisz/bundle-manifest.json)", "Authors: CHRIS WELLISZ", "Published: September 3, 2024", "Title reviewed: How the World Ran Out of Everything by Peter S. Goodman.", "Review author: CHRIS WELLISZ.", "Publication: F&D Magazine, September 2024.", "Book details as given: Mariner Books, New York and Boston, 2024, 406 pp., $37.", "Scope: Narrative account of global supply-chain disruptions revealed by the COVID-19 pandemic and their social and economic consequences.", "Ground-level reporting tracing disruptions from factories in Shenzhen, China, to ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and inland truck stops and rail yards.", "Central anecdote: the travails of Hagan Walker, an entrepreneur attempting to ship an order of plastic toys from China to U.S. customers in time for the holiday season.", "Human-impact vignettes:", "Historical and technological drivers surveyed:", "Role of management practices and incentives:", "Praise:", "Criticism:", "Goodman’s concluding prescriptions (as reported by the reviewer):", "Tone of conclusion:", "**Into the Maelstrom**" ], "related": [ { "title": "Into the Maelstrom", "role": "document", "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2024/09/books-wellisz.pdf", "summary": { "path": "/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2024/09/books-wellisz.pdf.md", "mime": "text/markdown" }, "binary": { "path": "/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2024/09/books-wellisz.pdf", "mime": "application/pdf" } } ], "alternates": { "markdown": "/en/publications/fandd/issues/2024/09/book-review-into-the-maelstrom-wellisz/index.md", "json": "/en/publications/fandd/issues/2024/09/book-review-into-the-maelstrom-wellisz/index.json", "bundleManifest": "/en/publications/fandd/issues/2024/09/book-review-into-the-maelstrom-wellisz/bundle-manifest.json" }, "generatedAtUtc": "2026-09-15T19:24:29.162Z" }