Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller: Oil and the End of Globalization

Jeff Rubin was former chief economist at CIBC World Markets. However, in his book Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller, Rubin isn’t talking about banking, he’s talking about the big bad oil era – and discusses the inevitable conclusion of the time of oil. Rubin recalls Friedman’s The World is Flat when he speaks of the eventual creation of a level playing field for currently developing nations – and how the continued globalization of the world today cannot continue without cheap oil.

Rubin goes further than addressing oil to talk about alternate energy sources, the slow move to transit as oil becomes scarce and the increasing use of locally manufactured food and goods. Gone will be the days, according to Rubin, of cheap travel because there won’t be cheap oil to fuel the planes we fly. Although at the beginning of the book it may sound like the prediction of the end of the world, Rubin is sure to show how we will adjust to the new way of life, but it might be more difficult for some than others. Not everyone will adjust quickly to having a lot “less”.

Overall, the book is a great read for anyone who cares about the Canadian energy, transportation, manufacturing or land sectors – there are plenty of Canadian examples for us at home.