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Money for Nothing
Book

Money for Nothing

Real Wealth, Financial Fantasies and the Economy of the Future

Roger Bootle
Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2004

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Editorial Rating

8

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Recommendation

A decade ago, economist Roger Bootle won respect for correctly predicting a long period of low inflation. In this wide-ranging look at the world economy, Bootle trades on that credibility to explain the origins of the dot-com bubble and to argue that the economy is in the midst of a housing bubble. He makes the convincing argument that stock-market gains are often little more than ephemera and he explores the idea of a knowledge-based economy. Bullish readers will be put off by Bootle’s gloom and doom. Deflation has yet to occur, and the housing bubble he harps on has yet to burst in the time span since this work’s publication. Still, getAbstract.com recommends this intriguing title to investors interested in a contrarian view of the markets and the economy.

Take-Aways

  • In recent years, affluent investors have embraced a get-rich-quick ethos.
  • This money-for-nothing mindset equates rapid rises in the prices of stocks or homes with wealth creation.
  • In fact, a society doesn’t gain wealth through speculation-driven markets, but only through boosting productivity.

About the Author

Roger Bootle runs the London-based consulting firm Capital Economics. Educated at Oxford, Bootle is a columnist for the Sunday Telegraph and a frequent speaker at conferences. He also is author of The Death of Inflation, an influential 1996 book that predicted an era of low inflation.

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