Michael J. Panzner

Michael J. Panzner photo

Michael Panzner is a 30-year veteran of the global financial markets who has worked in New York and London for such leading companies as HSBC, Soros Funds, ABN Amro, Dresdner Bank and J.P. Morgan Chase.

Panzner is the author of When Giants Fall: An Economic Roadmap for the End of the American Era, Financial Armageddon: Protecting Your Future from Four Impending Catastrophes, and The New Laws of the Stock Market Jungle: An Insider’s Guide to Successful Investing in a Changing World, and has also been a columnist for TheStreet’s RealMoney paid-subscription service and a contributor to DailyFinance.com.

He was formerly a New York Institute of Finance faculty member specializing in Equities, Trading, Global Capital Markets and Technical Analysis and is a graduate of Columbia University.

Excerpts from When Giants Fall

Table of Contents

Part I: Fault Lines of a Fading Empire

Chapter 1: Descent into Disorder
Chapter 2: Tides, Torrents, and Tsunamis
Chapter 3: A Future of Violence
Chapter 4: Money Talks
Chapter 5: Local Is the New Global
Chapter 6: Multiplying Divisions

Part II: Opportunities and Threats

Chapter 7: Everybody’s Business
Chapter 8: Small Fortunes
Chapter 9: The Power of One

Page 61

The intersection of crime, politics, and economics is just one of the many factors that will undermine stability and spawn an upsurge of economically debilitating violence in the years ahead. Worries and resentments over falling wages, surging unemployment, and the widening gap between rich and poor will also rouse nationalistic, protectionist, and xenophobic hostility. Throughout the world, there will be push for tighter borders and controls on the flow of people, goods, and capital. Immigrants and foreigners will become scapegoats for domestic ills.

Page 95

As deglobalization takes hold and the existing geopolitical order continues to crumble, hearts and minds will close along with borders. Nationalistic stirrings will rise up and overwhelm the integrative spirit of the past several decades. Cracks and stresses will appear virtually everywhere, souring attitudes and stoking suspicions. Instead of being drawn together in a flatter, more connected world, people will discover that new economic, social, and political realities are slowly but surely driving them apart.

Page 99

Recurring outbreaks of bird flu—and other diseases that could evolve into devastating epidemics—in Asia and elsewhere will also bolster efforts to lock down borders and limit the free flow of goods and services—as well as people.

Page 176

Amid a shrinking supply of services, medications, and providers, demand will take off, boosted by the afflictions of aging populations, infrastructure breakdowns that damage water treatment systems and waterways, an epidemic of epidemics, and the fallout from heightened violence and cross-border conflicts.