Planet Money book club

Credit markets, globalization, and biological extinction reveal the hidden forces shaping modern society. *American Bonds* illustrates how U.S. politicians utilize credit markets as an off-budget tool to circumvent legislative gridlock, noting that nearly one-third of privately held debt is backed by the federal government. Shifting to global trade, *The End of Globalization* examines historical parallels between early 20th-century shipping instability and contemporary supply chain disruptions, questioning the long-term sustainability of global interconnectedness. Finally, *The Sixth Extinction* frames human-driven globalization as a rapid reversal of evolutionary isolation, where the forced mixing of species and pathogens triggers existential consequences for global biodiversity. Together, these works highlight how financial, economic, and biological systems are increasingly intertwined, often resulting in unintended, large-scale impacts on both human development and the natural world.