Available Formats
Exile Economics: What Happens if Globalisation Fails
By (Author) Ben Chu
John Murray Press
Basic Books
12th August 2025
15th May 2025
United Kingdom
Tertiary Education
Non Fiction
International economics
International relations
Comparative politics
Hardback
320
Width 156mm, Height 240mm
'A smart, vivid and humane account of the way the world really works' TIM HARFORD
'This is the book to read if you want to understand what might be about to hit the world economy' EVAN DAVISThe dangerous race for self-sufficiency has begun. Be warned.Nations are turning away from each other. Faith in globalisaton has been fatally undermined by the pandemic, the energy crisis, surging trade frictions and swelling great power rivalry. A new vision is vying to replace what we've known for many decades. This vision - Exile Economics - entails a rejection of interdependence, a downgrading of multilateral collaboration and a striving for greater national self-sufficiency. The supporters of this new order argue it will establish genuine security, prosperity and peace. But is this promise achievable Or a seductive delusionThrough the stories of globally traded commodities - from silicon to steel and from soybeans to solar panels - economics journalist Ben Chu illustrates the intricate web of interdependence that has come to bind nations together - and underlines the dangers of this new push to isolationism. Exile Economics is an essential guide to this new world in all its promise and peril.Ben Chu is a brilliant guide both to economic ideas and to hard economic reality. Exile Economics is a smart, vivid and humane account of the way the world really works - and the dangers that now face us all -- Tim Harford, author of HOW TO MAKE THE WORLD ADD UP
In this beautifully written and researched book, Ben Chu lays out clearly and compellingly why seeking self-sufficiently, in everything from food to energy, technology to talent, is more likely to undermine than strengthen growth and security given the interdependency of modern supply chains -- Andy Haldane, former chief economist of the Bank of England & Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Arts
Ben Chu is one of the most outstanding economic journalists of our time. He writes with brilliant clarity, diligence and compassion -- Victoria Derbyshire, BBC Newsnight lead presenter
A superb and well-reasoned discussion of the issue that may come to affect all our lives . . . This is the book to read if you want to understand what might be about to hit the world economy -- Evan Davis
Ben is an experienced journalist, speaker and broadcaster who specialises in economics and current affairs. He is Policy and Analysis Correspondent at BBC Verify. Previously he was the Economics Editor of BBC Newsnight.
Ben was nominated for business journalist of the year at the 2015 British Journalism Awards and for business commentator of the year at the 2018 Comment Awards. He sits on the international advisory board of the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI). He is also a member of the Society of Professional Economists. Ben's first book Chinese Whispers: Why everything you've heard about China is wrong was nominated for International Affairs Book of the Year at the Paddy Power Political Book Awards in 2014.