Shaped by his 25 years travelling the world, and enlivened by his encounters with presidents, tycoons and villagers from Rio to Beijing, Ruchir Sharma's new book rethinks the dismal science of economics as a practical art, based not just on crunching numbers but on live observation. He shows us how to read the political headlines, the world billionaire rankings, the price of onions and popular news magazine covers as signs of coming booms, busts and protests. Parsing the complicated flood of data on debt, trade and capital flows, Sharma explains exactly which numbers are most telling for a nation's fortunes, and when they signal a turn for the better or worse.

In our post-crisis age that has turned the world on its head, and ended a decade of supercharged growth, replacing political calm with revolt and hype for globalization with fear of deglobalization, Sharma's pioneering book serves as a

highly readable field guide to understanding change not only in this new era, but in any era. It is written for any practical person - newspaper reader, business executive, politician or investor - interested in a new economics focused on what is coming next, not on the past. There is a saying that to know the road ahead, ask those coming back. On this road, Sharma is the one who has been there ahead of us.

About the Author

Ruchir Sharma is Head of Emerging Markets and Chief Global Strategist at Morgan Stanley Investment Management. With more than $20 billion of assets under management, Ruchir is one of the world's largest global investors. He typically spends one week every month in a different emerging market where he meets leading politicians, top CEOs and other local characters. He has been with the firm for 19 years and is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the Investment Management division.

Ruchir has been a writer for even longer than he has been an investor. He started writing at the age of 17 for India's largest economic daily, The Economic Times and is now a frequent contributor to the op-ed pages of The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, Foreign Affairs and The Times of India. His essays have also appeared in, Time, The New York Times, Foreign Policy, Forbes and Bloomberg View. For much of the last decade he had been a contributing editor and regular columnist for Newsweek International.

Ruchir may be most well-known for his 2012 book, Breakout Nations: In Pursuit of the Next Economic Miracles. Breakout Nations debuted as the number one bestseller in India, and earned Sharma the Tata Literature Live! First Book Award for 2012. Breakout Nations also made the Wall Street Journal hardcover business bestseller list, and was chosen by Foreign Policy as one of its “21 Books to Read in 2012”. Ruchir’s next book, THE RISE AND FALL OF NATIONS: Forces of Change in the Post-Crisis World will be released in June 2016. 

Bloomberg named Ruchir one of the top 50 Most Influential people in the world in October 2015. In 2012, Sharma was selected as one of the top global thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine and in June 2013, India's premier weekly magazine Outlook chose Ruchir as one of The World's 25 Smartest Indians. The World Economic Forum in Davos selected Ruchir as one of the world’s “Top Young Leaders” in 2007. 

Ruchir is especially passionate about politics and has formed an informal group of senior Indian editors and writers with whom he travels extensively before major state and national elections; usually logging in over 1,000 miles over 4-5 days, meeting with the nation’s top leaders and getting a first-hand feel of local politics. Ruchir's other interests include athletics and a serious commitment to running. Despite his extensive travels, he tries not to miss a single day of training no matter where he is in the world. He regularly trains with a former Olympics coach and competes in sprinting events. In 2011, he represented India in the World Masters Athletic championship in Sacramento.  Ruchir is a movie buff and makes it a point to attend major film festivals anytime he can take a moment away from his investing, writing and running. He also has a fascination with wildlife, and his annual safaris inform the prologue to THE RISE AND FALL OF NATIONS, a meditation on how witnessing predator-prey behavior on the African plains has shaped his rules for national survival and success in the global economy