Prosperity in The Age of Decline: How to Lead Your Business and Preserve Wealth Through the Coming Business Cycles by Beaulieu, Brian, Beaulieu, Alan (2014) Hardcover

by Brian Beaulieu

Excellent Book

Genres: Business, Economics, Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Chris Earley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good actionable content with a lot of numbers thrown at you.

[Scott Wozniak · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was publishing 2015--I read it in 2023. For a forecasting book, a gap of even 3 years is usually enough to make it irrelevant. But these guys are so exceptionally reliable in their predictions that there is still a ton of useful insight. They make an effort to add some humor, but it's still a lot of financial statistics. And they don't stop to explain all the terms or instruments. I actually think that was the right choice--it would have slowed the book down a lot to explain everything. So, if you're already financially savvy, then you'll keep up and enjoy this--and learn a lot. If you're not, then you should read other books to learn the basics then come back to this one.

Big idea here, they predict a Great Depression lasting as much as a decade starting around 2030. They have a lot of trends all pointing in the same direction, from demographics (birth rates down while the ages go up) to financial (national debts around the world hitting critical sizes) to the reluctance of boomers handing off authority to the next generations (creating abrupt changes when they finally are forced to). Best of all, they do have some practical advice on how to thrive despite that, from listing industries that are likely to be strong (energy transportation, food, etc.) to how to prepare a business to handle the stress.

[Norm · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book wasn't as good as I had hoped. I've been a multi-year subscriber to one of their services and I have had this book in my queue for a while. Unfortunately the authors don't understand inflation, what it real is and why the cause. Also the underlying theme from the authors lacks critical thinking, it comes off from a linear point of view in a vacuum. This was above all a disappoint. There are good points in the book such as useful game planning for business owners. It's prudent info.

[nocturne89 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beginner-friendly prospectus about why inflation is going to hit hard in 2030. Basically, aging population all around the world, generation of working people today is too small to shoulder the force of the needs for healthcare and social security. Combine that with mounting national debts, high taxes, higher unemployment, generations that do not remember inflation of the 70s = countries really not ready to solve this tough problem.

[Ann Korte · Rating 1 out of 5]

Waste of time. The book gives two points of advice: if you're old, you better have saved for retirement, or you're screwed, and if you're rich, you're going to get taxed more, and that's a bad thing, so you better stop it.

I clearly wasn't the intended audience.

[Mike Nyberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read

[Geoffrey Sadek · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book for a specific time - 2014-2017ish. However, I appreciated the insights and perspectives of the authors. Well researched, well written.

[Kevin C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone under 60 should read this book - and then start making their plan.

[Aaron Dutton]

Unfortunately the first chapter of the book set a tone for the rest of the book. It reads like a sales pitch for the ITR leading indicator. Of course this is sold by the authors of the book. All of the first chapter is about how accurate the leading indicator is, with no indication of *why* this is important. It feels as if this first chapter should have been placed somewhere else in the book and was edited to be moved to the front.

As a whole, the book seems like it could have been edited to have a much smoother flow. Chapter breaks after often choppy and adjacent chapters relate only loosely. Making it past this editing, I believe there are some nuggets of goodness.

I really enjoyed the second chapter which talks trends that happened in the past that we thought would never change. It also outlines some modern trends that they suspect will end even if it doesn’t feel that way right now.

Later on, the authors appropriately paint a gloomy a picture of the future based on an aging demographic and United States enormous national debt. They also provide some ideas on how to work with those issues in your business.

The latter half of the book feels like a number of individual essays placed together in the same spine. I think the central essay of that part is “protect your wealth in an age of turbulent business cycles” (from the back cover). It breaks down how to run your business in each phase of the cycle in a way to maximize the potential. This was good stuff. I thought this should have been the central thrust of the book but the disjointed chapters make it feel like it’s just another essay.

I think some of my issue with this book is that it is aimed at business leaders who have an opportunity to really guide the direction of marketing and operations for their company. I am not in that position so it loses its relevance.