Megathreats: Ten Dangerous Trends that Imperil Our Future, and How to Survive Them

Economic collapse, drought, famine, pestilence, war, and “the singularity” are among the calamities looming over the world, according to this bleak prognostication. Roubini (Crisis Economics), a New York University economist who was dubbed “Doctor Doom” for predicting the 2008 financial crash, envisions 10 disaster scenarios, many of them involving economic turmoil: inflationary monetary policies, a populist backlash against globalization that chokes off international trade and migration, the “demographic time bomb” of aging populations boosting pension costs while shrinking the work force, and the culmination of these and other developments in “the Great Stagflationary Debt Crisis” he forecasts for the next decade. Other menaces the author explores include climate change, which also raises the likelihood of new pandemics; the cold war between the U.S. and China turning hot; and, perhaps direst of all, the advent of artificial intelligence technologies that will automate away most jobs and render humankind obsolete. None of these scenarios are original to Roubini, and his doomsaying about them is sometimes overwrought. (“A rise of three degrees [Celsius] by 2100” in global average temperature “triggers Armageddon,” he intones.) Still, his analysis of present-day trends, especially in economics, is well-informed and insightful, and will give readers much disquieting food for thought. (Oct.)