Winner Take All

China's Race for Resources and What It Means for the World

By: Dambisa Moyo

Narrated by: Ken Perlstein

Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

Commodities permeate virtually every aspect of modern daily living, but for all their importance - their breadth, their depth, their intricacies, and their central role in daily life - few people who are not economists or traders know how commodity markets work. Almost every day, newspaper headlines and media commentators scream warnings of impending doom - shortages of arable land, clashes over water, and political conflict as global demand for fossil fuels outstrips supply. The picture is bleak, but our grasp of the details and the macro shifts in commodities markets remain blurry.

Winner Take All is about the commodity dynamics that the world will face over the next several decades. In particular, it is about the implications of China’s rush for resources across all regions of the world. The scale of China’s resource campaign for hard commodities (metals and minerals) and soft commodities (timber and food) is among the largest in history.

To be sure, China is not the first country to launch a global crusade to secure resources. From Britain’s transcontinental operations dating back to the end of the 16th century, to the rise of modern European and American transnational corporations between the mid 1860s and 1870s, the industrial revolution that powered these economies created a voracious demand for raw materials and created the need to go far beyond their native countries.

So too is China’s resource rush today. Although still in its early stages, already the breadth of China’s operation is awesome, and seemingly unstoppable. China’s global charge for commodities is a story of China’s quest to secure its claims on resource assets and to guarantee the flow of inputs needed to continue to drive economic development. Moyo, an expert in global commodities markets, explains the implications of China’s resource grab in a world of diminishing resources.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2012 Dambisa Moyo (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Written to clarify important global questions, this book deserves a wide audience." (Kirkus Reviews)

"With Winner Take All, Dambisa Moyo offers a timely and provocative answer to two crucial questions: How are China’s leaders rushing to meet their country’s exploding demand for energy, and what does this mean for the rest of us? From Africa to Central Asia to Latin America, China exerts growing influence over prices for the commodities we all must buy to fuel our cars, heat our homes, and power our economies. It’s a recipe for conflict—and at a crucial moment for the future of the global economy." (Ian Bremmer, President of Eurasia Group and author of The End of the Free Market)

Narration is so bad can't tell if book is good.

Would you try another book from Dambisa Moyo and/or Ken Perlstein?

Do not get a book performed by this narrator unless it is a children's book.

How could the performance have been better?

How could the performance have been worse? Only if a heavy foreign accent were added. The narrator's intonation and rhythm were that of someone who does not speak the language. Multiple mid-phrase pauses so effectively obscured the meaning of all but the shortest sentences that they seemed calculated to do so. Combine this with frequent mispronunciations and word substitutions (e.g., casualty for causality) that the listener finds he is inadvertently learning cryptology rather than economics, which is the topic of the book.

Was Winner Take All worth the listening time?

No. If you want to understand the content of this book, read it rather than listen to it.

Moyo's writing is excellent, narrator is terrible

What made the experience of listening to Winner Take All the most enjoyable?

Moyo is explaining an incredibly important trend. She bases her argument in fact and avoids the oft used cliches that are so common to this issue.

Would you be willing to try another one of Ken Perlstein’s performances?

My critique is not personal to Ken but his delivery was not up the usual standard at Audible. He read in a such a halting manner that it really did interfere with the book. I am so disappointed with this purchase because of the difficulties I had following the narrator.

A rare objective view of the global commodity race

Dambisa offers a rare objective view of the global commodity race, and China's rising demands.

The worst reading of an audio book ever.

What would have made Winner Take All better?

This is the worst reading of an audio book that I have ever listened to. I cant believe that I spent money on this production. I cant figure out if the reading is done by a computer or if the reader is just bad. This completely detracts from the book, which I think would have been ok. Please do NOT buy this book.