The financial crisis that engulfed much of the world in the late-2000s wasn't just a cyclical decline or a correction or even a bubble bursting. It was a breaking point.
Like an earthquake shaking apart a foundation, the global shocks of the past few years exposed a fundamentally new architecture underpinning the economic order.
Among the truths that came into focus: Europe is no longer the custodian of a global mercantile economy; it risks becoming the financial ward of its former colonies. American exceptionalism is such a specious idea that not even a majority of Americans say they believe in it. The banking system that was once said to be fueling the global economy turned out to be combustible under pressure.
Even as the collapse of the old order exposed those new realities, it made others harder to see. The recession that started in 2008 was not global. The world outside Europe and the U.S. kept on growing, and rapidly. China and India have continued to rise, but face mounting difficulties of their own. Parts of Latin America are surging. There's rapid growth in much of Africa. The lens of nations and regions can distort reality too. Across the world, industries are dying or being born, and the most successful companies, regardless of their national origins, will vie for global leadership.
The traditional press that chronicled — indeed, often cheered — the previous economic order struggles to understand this emerging global system. They are stuck with old explanations for new dynamics that include post-nationalism, openness, and a world in which remittances can be sent from one continent to another with nothing more than a mobile phone. The primacy of their loyalty to print constrains their ability to adapt to a fluid, mobile, digital, international marketplace for information.
Even before the recent financial calamities monopolized headlines, a new generation of businesses and of businesspeople was reshaping the global economic order. This generation is defined not by geographic location or by market capitalization, but rather by its ability to work anywhere and marry the impact of a world titan with the nimbleness of a digital startup. It is fluent in the lingua francas of the modern age: commerce, design, technology.
Leading the charge is a new class of global business executives who have more in common with each other than they do with their countrymen. They spend large parts of their physical and intellectual lives outside of their native lands. They access information on mobile devices that are ever at their sides. They know that the most dynamic businesses are rarely found in the old corridors of commerce and power — and confidently embrace the disrupters as part of their networks. In many ways, they are the arbiters of what "world class" really means.
These post-national business leaders are hungry for information that can help them better navigate the complex new global economy, optimizing their businesses and their lives. They're looking for a worldview unconstrained by the Old World order. They need media native to all digital platforms and paced for around-the-clock mobile reading.
There's a new global economy. And for that new order, there's Quartz.