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The Price of Tomorrow by Jeff Booth challenges one of the deepest assumptions in modern economics - that inflation is normal and necessary for growth. Booth argues that technology, by its very nature, is deflationary. As innovation accelerates, it reduces costs, increases efficiency, and makes products and services cheaper over time. Yet our financial systems are built on perpetual inflation and ever-expanding debt.
Booth explains that to counteract technology-driven deflation, governments and central banks continue to inject more debt into the system. This creates an illusion of growth while quietly increasing systemic fragility. He draws parallels between debt-fueled economic expansion and a Ponzi-like structure that depends on constant expansion to survive.
The book also examines how asset inflation benefits the wealthy, while currency devaluation and rising living costs disproportionately affect the middle class and the poor. Booth questions whether traditional economic models can survive in a world where technology is compounding exponentially.
Importantly, the book is not pessimistic. It presents deflation not as a threat, but as a potential path to abundance - if society is willing to rethink money, incentives, and economic structures.
Jeff Booth, a technology entrepreneur and founder of BuildDirect, writes from decades of firsthand experience navigating technological disruption. His perspective blends business reality with macroeconomic insight, making the book both practical and thought-provoking.
The Price of Tomorrow ultimately invites readers to reconsider what growth, prosperity, and value truly mean in a technology-dominated future.
These are the examples that stuck with me.
These learnings are worded and appended in a way that makes it easier for most of us to understand and absorb.
If you are interested in reading about such learning from other all-time best-selling books, you may click here.
For now, if you wish to know about "The Price of Tomorrow", and what I learned from it, here you go...
1/ The opportunity to create something better comes from observing something that is broken.
2/ Technology is deflationary in nature. As we increasingly adopt technology, we are entering a deflationary world, whether we like it or not.
3/ Assets typically appreciate in an inflationary world. However, technology is structurally challenging inflation, suggesting that the existing economic model may require redesign.
4/ Just as asset holders benefit in an inflationary world, holders of strong currencies benefit in a deflationary world.
5/ We often view technology narrowly as electronics or gadgets and assume inflation will persist elsewhere. In reality, technology is becoming the backbone of every company and industry.
6/ In a Ponzi scheme, early investors are rewarded using capital from new investors. This creates excitement and word-of-mouth promotion until the inflow of new investors slows. When that happens, the structure collapses because early investors can no longer be paid. Trust disappears. Debt-based growth operates similarly: it works as long as more debt can be added, but it cannot continue indefinitely.
7/ Global economies operate with inflation targets because inflation makes it easier to repay debt, as the future value of money declines.
8/ In a system where currency consistently loses value, taking debt benefits the rich. They can borrow, invest in appreciating assets, and repay the debt later with devalued money. The poor, however, often borrow for consumption and must repay with interest without asset appreciation. A debt-based economy therefore structurally favors the wealthy.
9/ Inflation targets gradually erode trust in currency.
10/ There is always a technological disruption window - large or small - during which existing monopolies are challenged by new entrants. Established companies often struggle to adapt to the speed of technological change, and their past strengths can quickly become weaknesses. Timing this disruption window is critical for entrepreneurial success.
11/ Aggregate platforms like Google tend to remain virtual monopolies until disrupted by a major technological breakthrough. They benefit from seller competition, which enhances the end-user experience. More sellers increase competition and improve user outcomes, often at no additional cost to the platform itself.
12/ In times of stability, an expert’s mind is valuable because it can recognize and explain repeated patterns. In times of change, however, a beginner’s mind has the advantage because it questions assumptions and is not constrained by cognitive biases.
13/ One way to break personal biases is to study across disciplines, observe patterns, and apply insights from one field to another where conventional thinking might resist such crossover.
14/ Another way to overcome bias is to “argue as if you are right, but listen as if you are wrong,” and to have strong opinions that are weakly held.
15/ Over the last 20 years, approximately $180 trillion of debt has been created to generate roughly $50 trillion of global economic growth. Without this debt stimulus, GDP growth might have been negative - potentially the natural state in a technology-driven world.
16/ Most deflationary pressure lies ahead, driven by exponentially advancing technology. To resist deflation, systems increasingly rely on more debt.
17/ Energy costs influence the price of nearly every product in the economy. As renewable technologies - particularly solar - continue to improve, energy becomes cheaper and more deflationary. Solar power is already cheaper than many traditional energy sources and continues to decline in cost.
18/ Artificial intelligence and the human mind function in similar ways: both rely on prior data, run algorithms, evaluate results, and update their reference frameworks. However, AI operates faster, retains vast memory, does not tire, and can solve certain problems more efficiently than humans.
19/ A simpler solution is generally more likely to be correct than a complex one. Increased complexity introduces more assumptions, which increases the probability of failure.
Hope these 19 top-notch lessons will help shape up your thought process to some extent and help you appreciate life much better.
If you are interested in reading about such learning from other all-time best-selling books, you may click here.
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