Michael J. Panzner

Michael J. Panzner photo

Michael J. Panzner is a 30-year veteran of the global stock, bond, and currency markets who has held senior positions in New York and London with leading financial institutions, including HSBC, Soros Funds, ABN Amro, Dresdner Bank, and J.P. Morgan Chase.

He 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.

In his books, Panzner accurately anticipated:

  • A severe global economic crisis triggered by a massive credit bubble, risky derivatives, and the fragility of mortgage lenders—a financial time bomb with far-reaching consequences.
  • Mounting fiscal pressures fueled by an aging population and unsustainable government spending, warning of a significant fiscal gap and the threat of a future reckoning without meaningful reform.
  • The resurgence of protectionism and the erosion of the free-trade era, driven by intensifying global competition for resources and strategic dominance.
  • Rising social unrest, crime, and civil disorder as consequences of economic decline, resource scarcity, a fraying social fabric, and escalating human-induced risks.
  • A global shift toward a multipolar world marked by strategic rivalry—particularly with China and Russia—and the mounting strain on an overstretched U.S. military.

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 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.