The world is at a critical juncture, poised between a surge in wealth and descent into outright slump. Now Roger Bootle embraces controversy again with a fascinating book which analyses the prospect for the future after the great illusion of the stock market bubble- 'money for nothing'. Yet Bootle argues that if we can avoid the twin perils of protectionism and a property slump, there is a positive prospect for a global leap in real wealth in the future through an acceleration in the new, intangible economy - money for nothing.
The world is on the brink of another leap forward in productive capacity and wealth which is the equivalent of the transformation which took place in our lives with the industrial revolution and the discovery of North America rolled into one - and collapsed into a couple of decades. The result may be a change in our circumstances which will make our lives today every bit as different to the next generation as those of two hundred years ago.