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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
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The Fractured Age summary
Neil Shearing
How Geopolitics Will Splinter the Global Economy
19 mins
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The Fractured Age examines the socioeconomic shifts reshaping the world, highlighting the challenges of globalization and technological advancements. It provides insights into the emerging economic order and its implications for future growth and stability.
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The Fractured Age
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The end of the peace dividend
Berlin, November 9, 1989. The Wall finally falls – and with it collapses the entire architecture of a divided world. For the next three decades, something remarkable happens. Former enemies become trading partners. Supply chains stretch across continents like vast networks of trust. A factory in Detroit depends on chips from Taiwan, which needs rare earth minerals from Africa, refined with German machines. The world becomes one giant marketplace.
This was the peace dividend in action. Defense budgets shrank while trade volumes soared. Between 1990 and 2008, global trade grew twice as fast as the world economy itself. China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001 and became the workshop of the world. Eastern European nations entered the European Union. Companies stopped thinking about national borders when planning production. If you wanted the most efficient supply chain, you sourced from wherever made economic sense, whether that was Vietnam, Mexico, or Slovakia.
The numbers tell an extraordinary story. In 1990, cross-border capital flows totaled about one trillion dollars annually. By 2007, that figure had reached twelve trillion. Your pension fund probably owned Chinese stocks. Chinese banks held American mortgages. Saudi sovereign wealth funds bought European infrastructure. Money moved freely, seeking the best returns regardless of geography.
Technology accelerated this integration. The internet made distance irrelevant for many services. You could hire programmers in India, accountants in the Philippines, designers in Brazil. Financial markets operated 24 hours, passing trades from Tokyo to London to New York in an endless cycle. A shipping container became the symbol of the age: standardized boxes that could move seamlessly from ship to truck to train, carrying everything from smartphones to soybeans.
But beneath this smooth surface, tensions were building. The same integration that brought prosperity also brought vulnerability. The 2008 financial crisis showed how problems in American housing markets could freeze credit in Iceland and force factory closures in China. Winners from globalization celebrated, but those who lost jobs to overseas competition grew bitter. By 2016, when Britain voted for Brexit and America elected Donald Trump for the first time, the political consensus supporting open borders and free trade had already fractured.
The peace dividend era assumed economics would always beat politics. That assumption died somewhere between the first Trump tariffs and the pandemic supply chain crisis. The world has entered a new chapter.
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What is The Fractured Age about?
The Fractured Age (2025) argues that globalization isn’t ending – instead, it’s transforming into distinct economic regions that will reshape everything from trade routes to technology standards over the next decade. The analysis reveals how geopolitical tensions have turned economic tools into weapons, forcing companies and countries to accept higher costs and fewer choices as the price of alignment.
Who should read The Fractured Age?
- Executives and strategists navigating supply chain decisions and market entry choices
- Entrepreneurs determining which markets to enter and which partnerships to pursue
- Anyone wanting more context about tariffs, sanctions, and emerging global trade blocs
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