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  • The End of the World Is Just the Beginning

  • Mapping the Collapse of Globalization
  • Written by: Peter Zeihan
  • Narrated by: Peter Zeihan
  • Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (473 ratings)

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The End of the World Is Just the Beginning

Written by: Peter Zeihan
Narrated by: Peter Zeihan
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Publisher's Summary

2019 was the last great year for the world economy.

For generations, everything has been getting faster, better, and cheaper. Finally, we reached the point that almost anything you could ever want could be sent to your home within days - even hours - of when you decided you wanted it.

America made that happen, but now America has lost interest in keeping it going.

Globe-spanning supply chains are only possible with the protection of the U.S. Navy. The American dollar underpins internationalized energy and financial markets. Complex, innovative industries were created to satisfy American consumers. American security policy forced warring nations to lay down their arms. Billions of people have been fed and educated as the American-led trade system spread across the globe.

All of this was artificial. All this was temporary. All this is ending.

In The End of the World is Just the Beginning, author and geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan maps out the next world: a world where countries or regions will have no choice but to make their own goods, grow their own food, secure their own energy, fight their own battles, and do it all with populations that are both shrinking and aging.

The list of countries that make it all work is smaller than you think. Which means everything about our interconnected world - from how we manufacture products, to how we grow food, to how we keep the lights on, to how we shuttle stuff about, to how we pay for it all - is about to change.

A world ending. A world beginning. Zeihan brings readers along for an illuminating (and a bit terrifying) ride packed with foresight, wit, and his trademark irreverence.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 Peter Zeihan (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

What listeners say about The End of the World Is Just the Beginning

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The BIG Story In All Its Glory.

Peter takes you on a journey to make sense of the changes in our evermore chaotic world. Deep topics covered in a way that makes it very hard to put the book down. Lots of well appreciated humour mixed in at no additional charge!!!

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A 5 star read

Great book hard to take it all in on the 1st read or in my case the 1st lesson. Really liked the way it's set up short paragraphs on a specific subject that you can easily go back to identify and hear again and I'll be doing that. So much info a lot to think about.

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Enjoyed this audiobook

Deep in detail. May need to listen to it twice. The authors narration was funny and made the book go by with enjoyment

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Exceptional

Peter is the best Geopolitical analyst of the era and he’s done it again. Well done

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Peter Is A MUST READ

A good explanation of his views of the world based off geopolitics and demographics. His other books are incredible and at points seem prophetic.

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You need to get this book

This is one of the most thoughtful looks at the world today. Peter and his team did a great job of sticking to facts, figures and trends while sprinkling in a sense of humour.

Anyone who is a manager, leader, investor should listen/read this book.

A special thanks to Peter and his team, for donating the proceeds from this book to help support medical services in the Ukraine.

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A Truly Important Book - even if only 20% Correct!

A devastatingly detailed and thorough review of the interconnectedness and fragility of out modern world - and how much of what we have built is about to come tumbling down. It Starts (a decade ago) with the retrenchment of the US back to North America that means (1) the global trade routes are no longer secured on the US dime and (2) all of the old rivalries that always wrented apart the old world will resurface (or maybe better to say erupt?). Add on top of that the demographic collapse and nightmare of most of the world - China, Russia, Europe, much of the middle East - an aging population that is both (1) no longer productive and (2) consuming vice investing their capital. The retrenchment of the US will cause massive inefficiencies and breakdowns in the global transport system - certainly this will be a big hit to the consumerist market - manufacturers will not be able to get their best widgets to far flung markets, causing economic downturns (and inconveniences). But more than that the movement of the commodities (steel, iron, potash, etc) will slow (or stop to some regions) meaning that even if there was transport to the markets, the manufacturing process will be slowed (or stopped). But the real issue will be energy and food. Not having widgets is one thing. Not having the transport or widgets or commodities to extract and delivery energy or farm and delivery food - well that creates désindustrialisation and famine. Provides a good overview as well went renewables are not yet their to fix the energy problem - they do not provide enough power, that require too many raw resources (lithium) that are not available (potentially simply not enough on the planet), too much specialized manufacturing and are not reliable/storable (we need better batteries)

So you probably think this is not a positive book... But the first step in any twelve step process is admitting you have a problem. In this book Mr Zeihan gives a VERY clear eyed and detailed description of the problem and the likely (inevitable?) outcomes. He died suggest some solutions - but this is a global problem and there is no one solution - if you have a million problems, you likely need a million solutions.

But the key point of optimism in this book is that these problems will not be distributed evenly across the planet (The future is here, it is just not evenly distributed...). The US and it's close allies ( Mexico, Canada, likely UK) is set to continue to prosper (likely at reduced levels) as they internally generally have what is required to be a modern economy - most of the resources, workable demographics, a strong democratic rule of law and a strong military. there will be other areas of contrinued prosperity as well

To conclude, as a personal comment, I did not find Mr Zeihan to be preachy or overbearing. His book was truly thoughtful, witty, easy to digest and very funny at places (in a dark, the end of the world is neigh way...). I found he was not saying all this badness is going to happen - he was clearing demonstrating (in a meticulously researched way) that if we keep on this path global disaster looms. But with the clear description of the problem he had provided, we can clean up our acts and maybe avoid the worst of it (but not all of it).

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Fantastic!

Such an insightful book on a number of topics we likely wouldn't even think of when talking about our future. Great narration by the author as well. I can guarantee I'll be coming back to this book a few more times in the next few years.

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Depressing but eye opening

A dim picture of our future supported by overwhelming evidence. It’s easy to take for granted how fragile our complex modern world is until you’ve listened to this. Zeihan does a tremendous job laying it all out.

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Very insightful

Highly recommend this book. I bought it for my dad as well. Definitely changes your perspective on what the world will look like in the coming decades.

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