NPR.

When you look at the global economy today, it's easy to get the impression that things are bad.

After all, when you turn on the news and it seems like all you hear about is countries dealing

with financial panics, trade wars, soaring inflation, collapsing industries.

Yeah, is that our fault?

Well, remember we did our sentiment analysis?

We're slightly cheery than the average financial news source.

Okay, so, you know, maybe like half guilty as charged.

Yeah.

Ishwar Prasad is a little different, though. He's an optimist by nature, and he's also a professor

of economics and trade policy at Cornell University. When he sat down to write his most recent

book about the global economy, he wanted to focus on the positive. Sure, he thought,

the world seems like it's in turmoil right now, but when you zoom out, there's a more optimistic

story to tell. One could argue, and I was going to argue, that we're just in a transitional

period where there is a lot of volatility, but everything is going to settle down.

But the more research he did, the more convinced he was that the future for our global

economy actually is quite bleak and actually a lot bleaker than he originally thought.

You know, my heart was pulling me in one direction, which was the optimistic thesis,

and my head was pulling me in the completely different direction. So Ishwar wrote a very different book than he planned.

Out this month, it is called The Doom Loop,

why the world economic order is spiraling into disorder.

Okay, so maybe our like slightly chipper delivery might want to have some more somber tones.

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