The Age of Stagnation

December 7, 2015
Das, selected by Bloomberg Markets as one of the 50 most influential financial thinkers, provides an accessible and deeply alarming look at the current world economy and anticipated future downward trends. After a concise summary of the post-WWII era, which he terms “the New Gilded Age,” Das reviews the 2007 financial crisis, providing a perspective that will be useful even for well-informed readers. He feels that the financial meltdown was a crisis that went to waste: “weary policymakers” dismissed the very real risks of further trouble, such as those posed by additional crises in emerging markets such as Brazil, India, and Turkey. Chapters of depressing information are leavened by some wry humor; for example, Das pokes fun at people who pretend to have read Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century. But perhaps the only thing more disheartening than his forecasts is his prescription for the bitter medicine he feels is needed to forestall disaster—political nonstarters such as population control and rationed electricity consumption—which makes this important volume more valuable as an issue spotter than a road map. Agent: Andrew Stuart, Stuart Literary Agency.