Description

A kaleidoscopic account of the financial carnage of the pandemic revealing the fear grit and gambles that drove the economys winners and losersfrom a leading business reporter

A true masterwork perceptive well researched and captivatingDavid M Rubenstein cofounder and cochairman of The Carlyle Group bestselling author of How to Invest

It was the ultimate test for CEOs and almost none of them saw it coming In early March 2020 with the Dow Jones flirting with 30000 the worlds biggest companies were riding an elevenyear economic high By the end of the month millions were out of work iconic firms were begging for bailouts and countless small businesses were in freefall Slick consulting teams and countryclub connections were suddenly of little use Business leaders were fumbling in the dark tossing out longterm strategy and making decisions on the flydecisions that they hoped might just save them

In Crash Landing awardwinning business journalist Liz Hoffman shows how the pandemic set the economy on firebut if you look closely the tinder was already there After the global financial crisis in 2008 corporate leaders embraced cheap debt and growth at all costs Wages flatlined Millions were pushed into the gig economy Companies crammed workers into offices and airlines did the same with planes Wall Street cheered on this relentless march toward efficiency overlooking the collateral damage and the risks sowed in the process

Based on astonishing access inside some of the worlds biggest and most iconic companies Crash Landing is a kaleidoscopic account of the most remarkable period in modern economic history revealingthrough gripping flyonthewall reportinghow CEOs battled an economic catastrophe for which there was no playbook among them Airbnbs Brian Chesky blindsided by a virus in the middle of a highstakes effort to go public American Airlines Doug Parker shuttling between K Street and the White House determined to secure a multibilliondollar bailoutand Fords Jim Hackett as his assembly lines went from building cars to churning out ventilators

Inthe tradition of Too Big to Fail and The Big ShortCrash Landing exposes the fear grit and gambles behind the pandemic economy while probing its implications for the future of work corporate leadership and capitalism itself asking Will this remarkable time give rise to newfound resilience or become just another costly mistake to be forgotten