How the World Ran Out of Everything

By the New York Times’s Global Economics Correspondent, an extraordinary journey to understand the worldwide supply chain—exposing both the fascinating pathways of manufacturing and transportation that bring products to your doorstep, and the ruthless business logic that has left local communities at the mercy of a complex and fragile network for their basic necessities.

“A tale that will change how you look at the world.” —Mark Leibovich

Named a Best Book of the Year by Foreign Policy and The Aspen Institute * Longlisted for the Porchlight Business Book Award

How does the wealthiest country on earth run out of protective gear in the middle of a public health catastrophe? How do its parents find themselves unable to locate crucially needed infant formula? How do its largest companies spend billions of dollars making cars that no one can drive for a lack of chips?

The last few years have radically highlighted the intricacy and fragility of the global supply chain. Enormous ships were stuck at sea, warehouses overflowed, and delivery trucks stalled. The result was a scarcity of everything from breakfast cereal to medical devices, from frivolous goods to lifesaving necessities. And while the scale of the pandemic shock was unprecedented, it underscored the troubling reality that this system built on Just in Time principles was fundamentally at risk of descending into chaos all along. And it still is. Sabotaged by financial interests, a loss of transparency in markets, and worsening working conditions for the people tasked with keeping the gears turning, our global supply chain has become perpetually on the brink of collapse.

In How the World Ran Out of Everything, award-winning journalist Peter S. Goodman reveals the fascinating innerworkings of our supply chain and the factors that have led to its constant, dangerous vulnerability. His reporting takes readers deep into the elaborate system, showcasing the triumphs and struggles of the human players who operate it—from factories in Asia and an almond grower in Northern California, to a group of striking railroad workers in Texas, to a truck driver who Goodman accompanies across hundreds of miles of the Great Plains. Through their stories, Goodman weaves a powerful argument for reforming a supply chain to become truly reliable and resilient, demanding a radical redrawing of the bargain between labor and shareholder interests, and deeper attention paid to how we get the things we need.

From one of the most respected voices in economic journalism working today, How the World Ran Out of Everything is a fiercely smart, deeply informative look at how our supply chain operates, and why its reform is crucial—not only to avoid dysfunction in our day to day lives, but to protect the fate of our global fortunes.

This riveting work of economic journalism breaks down the complexities of modern globalization and reveals:

• The Just in Time Fallacy: Discover how a sensible manufacturing philosophy was twisted to prioritize shareholder interests over resilience, setting the stage for global shortages and widespread inflation.
• Human Cost of Efficiency: Journey from factories in Asia to the highways of the Great Plains and meet the human players—from truck drivers to railroad workers—exploited to keep the gears of commerce turning.
• Monopoly Power and Price Hikes: Investigate how decades of deregulation allowed a few monopolistic companies to dominate key industries, engineering scarcity to boost profits during a worldwide catastrophe.
• The Future of the Supply Chain: Explore the urgent arguments for reforming the system through reshoring and nearshoring to build a more reliable and resilient network for the things we need.