Rana Foroohar

Global Economic Analyst, CNN | Global Business Columnist, Financial Times

Economics

World Economy

US Economy

Politics

Geopolitics

Foreign Affairs

Moderators

Blockchain

Artificial Intelligence

Global Business Columnist at the Financial Times and Global Economic Analyst at CNN Rana Foroohar covers the intersection of business, economics, politics, and foreign affairs. In Fall 2022, she released her third book, a sweeping case that a new age of local economic growth will reunite place and prosperity, putting to an end to the last half-century of globalization, titled Homecoming: The Path to Prosperity in a Post-Global World.

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A sought-after commentator and moderator for her analysis, Foroohar speaks on the changes occurring in globalization, politics, and the digital economy. Her weekly column is a real-time commentary on emerging markets, and the disruption of big tech. The former Economics Columnist and Assistant Managing Editor for TIME, Foroohar has penned numerous cover stories and essays on China and the next global recession, Europe’s economic crisis, and the rise of “localnomics” means for American business. Foroohar's first book, Makers and Takers, was a finalist for the 2016 FT & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award.

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Rana will be a visiting professor in economics and business at the Columbia University Journalism School in the spring 2023.

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Topics

DATA: THE WORLD’S MOST VALUABLE RESOURCE & THE RISE OF SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM

Data is the oil of our age – the world’s most valuable resource. 80 percent of corporate value lives in the top 10 percent of companies that control the most of it. These include not only the biggest Silicon Valley giants but all sorts of companies, from packaged goods leaders to healthcare and financial services firms. What’s more, the internet of things, which will connect not people, but devices to each other, is expected to be the source of the biggest leap in economic growth in the next several decades. Owning and understanding data is key – for consumers, companies, and countries. But there are big changes coming down the pike, as the US, Europe, and China develop different rules of the road for the digital economy. States like California and countries like France want to pay users for data. Companies are embedding sensors in all types of products to collect the data that will create new service businesses. Workers are starting data unions. Surveillance capitalism will bring big opportunities, but also major challenges. What will be the effects of A.I. and what it will mean for global economics, business, and politics? What does the spread of fake news and platform technologies mean for the future of liberal democracy? How can companies of all shapes and sizes get access to data when giant technology platforms control so much of it? How will these changes differ across the world? How can companies prepare themselves to survive and thrive in the 21st century data-driven economy? Calling on her award-winning second book, Don’t Be Evil, which covered the rise of Big Tech, and her upcoming third book, which will cover the rise of 5G and the industrial internet, Foroohar will take viewers on a journey to a new era of capitalism and tell them how to not only survive but thrive in it.

THE AGE OF NETWORKS

It used to be that governments ran the world. But the rise of the internet has allowed companies, namely the Big Tech platforms, to rival nations in terms of size and economic power. As we move into a new era of decentralized technologies like blockchain, digital currencies, and 3-D printing, our world will change further. Borders are falling away, and we are all becoming nodes on various networks. Old institutions and power structures will fall, and new ones will emerge. In this new world, cities are issuing their own currencies, and companies will have their own foreign policy. The boundaries between consumers and citizens, local and global, will blur, and a more interconnected yet heterodox world will emerge. Get ahead of the curve with Rana Foroohar as she lays out what this new world will mean for markets, politics, and society.

ESG: THE NEXT BIG FINANCIAL DISRUPTION

Over the last forty years, we've gotten used to consuming more things, more cheaply, than ever before — from food to fashion to electronic gadgets. But this has come with huge downsides, from wage stagnation to environmental risks and human rights violations. Now, with the rise of ESG investing, regulators and financial markets are beginning to tally the true cost of the old model. And as countries roll out new ESG rules, we will see major changes in trade patterns, supply chains, tax codes, share prices, and labor markets. The next global financial disruption won't come from banks or China — but from the breakdown of the last half-century of neoliberal capitalism. Join Rana Foroohar as she shares her take on what it will all mean for companies, countries, consumers, and citizens.

THE BIGGEST ECONOMIC DRIVER — CLIMATE CHANGE

The war in Ukraine has forced every country in the world to ramp up the shift to clean energy. This comes with tremendous benefits but also challenges. How quickly can we shift to green in a deglobalizing world? Will climate change be inflationary, or deflationary? Who will pick up the costs of the shift — consumers, companies, or countries? And who will reap the most benefits? Calling on her new book, Homecoming: The Path to Prosperity in a Post Global World, as well as her FT columns on climate change as the most powerful force in markets today, Foroohar will outline the next big economic shift, to a carbon neutral world, and how it will play out for markets, business, and Main Street.

THE WORLD ISN'T FLAT

At the dawn of the twenty-first century, Thomas Friedman declared globalization the new economic order in The World Is Flat. But the reign of globalization as we've known it is over, argues Financial Times columnist and CNN analyst Rana Foroohar. Drawing from her upcoming book, Homecoming: The Path to Prosperity in a Post Global World, she lays out how the rise of local, regional, and home-grown business is now at hand. The pandemic brought the fragility of global trade and supply chains into stark relief. It also illuminated the long-time vulnerabilities in our neoliberal economic philosophy, one that prioritizes efficiency over resilience and global profits over local prosperity. It's a model that produced massive wealth, inequality, environmental degradation, political bifurcation, and distrust in today's institutions. But the pendulum of history is swinging back, powered by geopolitical, demographic, and financial changes, as well as new place-based economics and a wave of technological innovations — from decentralized manufacturing and digital currencies to the internet of things and blockchain. The shape of companies, trade routes, national economies, and global politics are changing. In this engagement, Foroohar will sketch out the shape of this new tripolar world, calling on her exclusive conversations with top US and EU officials, as well as color reporting from China, America, Germany, the UK, and beyond.

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