The Price of Tomorrow: Why Deflation is the Key to an Abundant Future

The thing is, I don't feel like this book quite delivers on what it promises. I listened to a podcast with Jeff Booth, I was impressed, I bought this book because I was expecting to learn about how a deflationary system could work. I.e. the economics of, monetary and fiscal policy, hard money, possibly historical examples of it. Saving over spending, possibly some analysis of what the American economy was like on the gold standard, that type of thing. Basically a treatise on how the economy could function with deflation.There was a few chapters of that but then it sort of turned into a Malcolm Gladwell treatise. A tome about AI learning to put the smackdown on human players at the game of GO, how political divides can tear a country apart, how our beliefs drive division, this type of thing. It's not that these ideas don't have their place, it's just that I don't think they belong in this book. Or, maybe they do but the book should be marketed differently.Also, it's mildly disappointing in that if you read a lot, a majority of these ideas, case studies, examples, etc. won't be new. They have been covered before and before and before.So I really wanted to like this book, I really *did* like this book after three chapters, but it started to slam into the hurdles after that. At least for me.

The book was interesting and thought provoking. But having said that I felt like I was reading Kafka's The Trial as I waited and waited for the author's assessment of where we go from here.So we know that technology has created a deflationary environment; that all current growth is based on massive debt; and, that there are only a few ways out of the situation. While appreciating that the author does not have a crystal ball I would have liked to read his best guess(es) as to how the situation plays out over the next five, ten or twenty years, and how one should be positioned to best protect from the likely economic chaos.

This is a very inconvenient read for people that have thrived off the old monetary system. Booth's examples of why inflationary monetary policy has created the polarization in politics and social classes are easily described and understood. These are complex topics that he makes accessible to all readers. His recommendation for deflationary monetary policy is a brilliant example of deep critical thinking in a time where most academics have become nothing more than caged circus acts. If you read the subtitle and immediately think, deflation is a laughable solution to what we need today, you're probably the person that needs to read this book the most.

Jeff Booth published this book on January 14. The 10 year breakeven, a measure of forward inflation, was 1.77%. After Covid19, the breakeven is now 1.07% despite the Fed announcing nearly 6 trillion $ of incremental monetary easing. I don't know a better quantitative verification of the book's underlying narrative - that money printing is not necessarily a driver of inflation. The reality is that endless monetary easing combined with a backdrop of technologically driven abundance (lower prices) cause a death spiral in banking profitability, resulting in tightening credit conditions for consumers and easier credit conditions for technology companies. These technology companies in turn accelerate job losses in the retail and services sector, as they automate functions.Since Booth published his book - the regional banking ETF (KRE) which measures credit for every day people has dropped 36%, while the Nasdaq (QQQ) driving tech deflation has risen 2%. Oil prices briefly went negative as the physical world crashed while the digital world accelerated. Thus, we can view Covid as a massive accelerant to this book's thesis - namely that technology and quantitative easing exist in a perverse feedback loop that will ultimately result in drastic social unrest or the creation of a new world order (or both).The Price of Tomorrow has important implications for monetary policy, investing, and society itself. Monetary policy assumes that quantitative easing stimulates inflation - when as Stan Druckenmiller notes, QE has only really succeeded in creating asset bubbles that drive deflation when bubbles ultimately pop. This book should be required reading - and likely required discussion for Central Bankers as they implement progressively more extreme policies to achieve their mandate of "full employment and stable inflation". Booth's argument that their policies will likely end in mass unemployment via stimulating job automation and hollowing out the banking sector is playing out in front of our eyes.

Incredible, highly recommend... What Jeff Booth talks about in this book IS HAPPENING...NOW! When I read this book and wondered when, not the change in markets and the things he talked about would start happening this decade. After the global market and social disruption we've been seeing this week, it appears it's happening now. The novel coronavirus fears have triggered what may be the start of something big. We may be going into a change as drastic as the 1930s were from the 1920s. If so, the years ahead will be very different from anything we've faced in our lifetime...and when you read the book, you realize...it all makes sense! I feel compelled to get as many people to read this as possible as soon as possible. This book is ESSENTIAL READING to make sense of, navigate, survive, and thrive in this changing market environment. Get ahead of the curve and read this book ASAP...read it several times, it may be one the best investments you can make!!!

This very accessible book discusses a fundamental flaw of our financial system, namely that it needs constant growth to function. The fundamental premise is that technological development pulls strongly in the opposite direction, and based on that Jeff lays out a convincing argument that the system we have is not sustainable. Each time there is a shock to the system, the government faces the choice of either letting it all collapse or doing a bailout that arbitrarily transfers massive amounts of wealth and further escalates the problem. While the book does not provide solutions, it does a great job of distilling the essence of the problem. Highly recommended reading, very timely for anyone trying to understand the effect of COVID-19 on the economy.

I think the book reads well and asks a very interesting question (which is why I bought the book) - why not embrace deflation and end the seemingly never-ending debt cycle? But instead of exploring this in rigorous detail he provides some basic concepts (great for people new to economics / finance / tech but nothing really new, and then in the conclusion asks the question again: why don’t we just embrace deflation? Which is exactly what I was hoping he’d provide some strong points for!Perhaps I was hoping too much for such a huge topic - but this is 200+ pages of generalist knowledge, and reads like a tech CEO who read a few interesting books to quote from, has a lot of cash and doesn’t want the government to inflate it away with expansionary monetary policy (fair enough). In my humble opinion, not a single policy maker would be influenced by this. I surely wasn’t.

This is a very joined up and thoughtful book about what state the world is in at this present time and more importantly, where it is heading. Jeff Booth is a tech entrepreneur with 30 years experience in the industry which gives him unique insights into the exponential power of technology and it's corresponding exponential deflationary effects. Anyone who thinks Governments all around the world currently engaged in massive money-printing experiments will cause inflation, are mis-guided. The world is changing fast and those currently controlling the levers are doing exactly the opposite of what needs to be done.Changes will be forced upon us. Lets just hope those changes are brought about by co-operation and not conflict.

This is an extremely cogent work, in which the author postulates that there seems no alternative to solving the world debt pandemic than for Central Banks to come together in a Bretton-Woods style agreement. Clearly-written in layman’s terms, Jeff Booth’s book will wake everyone up to the fact that deflation caused by the exponential developments in technology must be embraced rather than fought by quantitative easing (insanely kicking the problem into the long grass by printing more money). The book reflects on the fact that the world will go through much pain before realisation dawns on our Governments - if at all. Superb. Should be included in every Economics degree reading syllabus.

Inflation = good, deflation = bad is what we're taught in school. Booth flips this equation with a devastating blow.He's not an economist though, but as a successful entrepreneur he understands the economy better than most. He highlights that our pre-tech era financial system no longer serves our best interests. A new paradigm is required, and deflation may be the key to the prosperous future for all that was invisaged at the beginning of the technological revolution.Booth's ideas are particularly salient in 2020 as the gap between assets owners and salaried workers grows. Crucially for today, he also answers why no amount expansionary monetary policy will lead to true prosperity.In short, this book is one of the most important works of our generation and is essential reading for all.