"Informative and accessible, penetrating and provocative. . . . A first-rate guide to global trends." ―NPR.org

As individuals, companies, and countries struggle to recover from the economic crisis, many are narrowly focused on forecasts for the next week, month, or quarter. Yet they should be asking what the global economy will look like in the years to come―where will the long-term risks and opportunities arise?

These are the questions that Daniel Altman confronts in his provocative and indispensable book. The fate of the global economy, Altman argues, will be determined by deeper factors than those that move markets from moment to moment. His incisive analysis brings together hidden trends, societal pressures, and policy endgames to make twelve surprising but logical predictions about the years ahead and to pose the question of whether our political and economic institutions are up to the task.

Outrageous Fortunes tells which industries will grow, which economies will crumble, which investments will pay off, and where the next big crisis may occur. Altman's carefully reasoned text is an essential guide for the road ahead, and in a new preface written for this edition, he shows how these trends are revealing themselves in today's global economy.