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The Economics of Discontent: From Failing Elites to The Rise of Populism
The social contract that has underpinned growth and political stability in the Western world since World War II has broken down. Houses, health care and higher education have become unaffordable to a majority of people, while the burden of unregulated monopolies, globalization and uncontrolled immigration has fallen disproportionately on the lower and middle classes.
Wrapped in political correctness, an increasingly out of touch Western elite continues catering to special interests and fails to grasp the urgency for change. Populist movements harnessing public anger appear unable to propose and implement effective solutions.
The last financial crisis was bad enough. But the next crisis will spread deeper and wider. And yet we stand economically, politically and most of all intellectually unprepared.
This book is the story of how we have arrived at the brink of disaster and how we can move away from the win-lose policies of recent decades to restore much-needed balance.
Wrapped in political correctness, an increasingly out of touch Western elite continues catering to special interests and fails to grasp the urgency for change. Populist movements harnessing public anger appear unable to propose and implement effective solutions.
The last financial crisis was bad enough. But the next crisis will spread deeper and wider. And yet we stand economically, politically and most of all intellectually unprepared.
This book is the story of how we have arrived at the brink of disaster and how we can move away from the win-lose policies of recent decades to restore much-needed balance.
546 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 14, 2019
1902 people are currently reading
774 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
October 27, 2021
Not a book; it's an Encyclopedia!!
I have Kindle version, which I recommend. I am stunned by my good fortune of finding this book. There are 72 pages of clicks worthy active citations for you to immediately read the original document. There are over 100 full page graphs to explain and demonstrate a topic. I love a good index, and this book's index is very good. The table of contents is extensive and allows you to pick a topic of interest and read about that topic in a self-contained way, similar to an encyclopedia. And unlike most encyclopedias I know, this book has active links you can click on for further reading. This book has something to say about important topics of our day so you can be more informed and make educated decisions. Healthcare, infrastructure, immigration, education, borders, inflation, monetary policy, banks. I recommend you download the e-book sample and check our the table of contents and the beginning. If you are a concerned citizen who wants to have an educated opinion about many of today's important topic, I strongly urge you to at least check this book out. We are drowning in information and propaganda. This book gives you the facts and the citation links to do the research and get the truth.
I have Kindle version, which I recommend. I am stunned by my good fortune of finding this book. There are 72 pages of clicks worthy active citations for you to immediately read the original document. There are over 100 full page graphs to explain and demonstrate a topic. I love a good index, and this book's index is very good. The table of contents is extensive and allows you to pick a topic of interest and read about that topic in a self-contained way, similar to an encyclopedia. And unlike most encyclopedias I know, this book has active links you can click on for further reading. This book has something to say about important topics of our day so you can be more informed and make educated decisions. Healthcare, infrastructure, immigration, education, borders, inflation, monetary policy, banks. I recommend you download the e-book sample and check our the table of contents and the beginning. If you are a concerned citizen who wants to have an educated opinion about many of today's important topic, I strongly urge you to at least check this book out. We are drowning in information and propaganda. This book gives you the facts and the citation links to do the research and get the truth.
April 7, 2022
Interesting but his obvious agenda clouds the work. In different parts, he says that there are too few doctors because organized medicine stifles supply and that anyone who wants to should be able to practice. Later we are told that this difficult area needs to be closely monitored to ensure quality and yet later says medical professionals need to be paid less to bring down costs. None of that adds up to any thinking person.
November 23, 2022
I see only emotional statements combined with some facts that support such emotions. Give up reading after a few chapters.
January 7, 2024
An excellent summary of what is wrong and what needs to be done
This is a great summary of what is wrong and what needs to be done. Written in 2017/18 and published in 2019, despite the absence of comment on Covid and recent wars, it is a remarkably prescient and convincing assessment of the economic policy changes that could be made. The challenge is to find a political coalition of voters, party groups, backers and leaders who would want to do this and be able to deliver. I’m not sure they are there or would be able to do it. This then takes us to the Langston Hughes poem Dream Deferred mentioned in the middle chapters.
This is a great summary of what is wrong and what needs to be done. Written in 2017/18 and published in 2019, despite the absence of comment on Covid and recent wars, it is a remarkably prescient and convincing assessment of the economic policy changes that could be made. The challenge is to find a political coalition of voters, party groups, backers and leaders who would want to do this and be able to deliver. I’m not sure they are there or would be able to do it. This then takes us to the Langston Hughes poem Dream Deferred mentioned in the middle chapters.
September 20, 2020
Excellent book. The first few chapters really define the issues we are facing today economically, illuminated by the social anxiety being exhibited. Remember this book was written in 2015. So its so nice to refer on thoughts and then see them in action now.
This isn't a left wing or right wing book. The thoughts advocated will challenge both sides of the political spectrum.
My personal highlights. Social spending has been an anesthesia up till now. But discontent is never fixed, just covered up. Also, when a politician says he supports spending on any social project, what he means is he just wants to redistribute the peoples money to buy votes. Last, the economic concepts of how the wealthy get wealthy and stay wealthy due to political policy's advocated by the liberal mantra. Challenging thoughts I felt.
Its a read with a lot of facts and figures. Its not a cheap political hit piece or whining author book. Its a reference book, agree or not with some conclusions.
This isn't a left wing or right wing book. The thoughts advocated will challenge both sides of the political spectrum.
My personal highlights. Social spending has been an anesthesia up till now. But discontent is never fixed, just covered up. Also, when a politician says he supports spending on any social project, what he means is he just wants to redistribute the peoples money to buy votes. Last, the economic concepts of how the wealthy get wealthy and stay wealthy due to political policy's advocated by the liberal mantra. Challenging thoughts I felt.
Its a read with a lot of facts and figures. Its not a cheap political hit piece or whining author book. Its a reference book, agree or not with some conclusions.
September 28, 2020
Dazzling
If only every politician could read this. An encyclopedia of facts with substance and evidence. I keep it ready for any argument i ran into....i wish it could be in a pocket size....a reference guide without comparison. Buy it and read it slowly...contemplating after every chapter..you will not regret it.
If only every politician could read this. An encyclopedia of facts with substance and evidence. I keep it ready for any argument i ran into....i wish it could be in a pocket size....a reference guide without comparison. Buy it and read it slowly...contemplating after every chapter..you will not regret it.
March 19, 2023
Very enlightening
The solutions suggested to solve problems pointed out in this book are innovative and worth considering. They may be very unpopular politically in the short-term, but will have to be implemented in the long-term. We may not have a choice but make these tough decisions.
The solutions suggested to solve problems pointed out in this book are innovative and worth considering. They may be very unpopular politically in the short-term, but will have to be implemented in the long-term. We may not have a choice but make these tough decisions.
December 11, 2021
Articulating huge issues.
This is a succinct well footnotes explanation of the critical issue of our time. Take the time. Read it. You can't afford to miss this.
This is a succinct well footnotes explanation of the critical issue of our time. Take the time. Read it. You can't afford to miss this.
January 19, 2022
what in the centrist bullshit did i just attempt to read......
[dnf'ed this if im being completely honest i couldnt stomach it]
[dnf'ed this if im being completely honest i couldnt stomach it]
March 6, 2022
By far and away the best examination of the economic reasons behind our current political climate.
March 23, 2024
Full of interesting graphs. Insightful economic explanations that include the EU as well as the US for examples. I found it very interesting on page 0 that the author is not making royalties from publishing the book and encourages free use of the materials in academic settings. Great to see that they are more interested in creating dialogue than making money from their economic/political writings.
However, the author is a practicing hedge fund manager who has no aversion to profit seeking investments, but the author also has the academic credentials (Belgian Postgrad and Stanford PHD) and social background being from Belgium to offer truly interesting perspectives on how a government can prioritize investments in its population while still encouraging private businesses to drive and grow an economy.
I disagree with many of the reviews citing bias. If anything I think this book has some of the most respectful and logical explanations or why populist and/or nativist political parties have become upset with the economic consequences of globalization and central bank quantitative easing. I say populist/nativist instead of right wing, because in the EU examples cited by the author many left wing politicians are able to articulate an anti open immigration position as being something to protect working class citizens consistent with their workers party value, which is not something really discussed by the democratic party in the US.
The author gives a simple cause and effect framework that doesn’t need to resort to calling his political opponents racists or idiots, as is unfortunately common today.
The author does argue for plenty of traditionally left wing policies, such as business regulation reform, monopoly busting, tax policy reform, political donation limitation, healthcare reform, etc. - but I’d like to focus this review on those two points I mentioned that I feel the author did very well to explain the reaction of right wing politicians being voted into office and how much they, ironically, have in common with traditional left wing view points on the subjects of globalization weakening blue collar industrial labor, quantitative easing widening the wealth gap, and social spending being impossible due to inefficient or unfair allocation, including to unauthorized immigrants. The author does do a decent job of bridging the gap to show that many of these business regulations are ironically proposed to try to make the market more free and unencumbered, as the author provides several arguments and data sets to try to show that the current market is dominated by large monopolistic players and is less "free" due to their free reign to act.
The author gives plenty of examples of globalization causing local workforces to have to compete with global labor, as local businesses have to pay income taxes while competing with imported goods from countries that don’t have similar or sufficient levels of social spending or taxes.
Also a significant focus of the book is QE causing asset price inflation/bubbles, which increasingly punish and shut the door for those who did not start with assets, reducing the American dream of class mobility.
The author also cleanly and without xenophobia explains that open door immigration is fundamentally incompatible with open door publicly funded services such as healthcare or full education from birth through college, because the local taxpayers of any given country are unable to pay for the housing, healthcare, and education of the entire world.
The USA has ~50m total foreign born residents, about 5x more than other countries generally seen has having better social safety nets, such as France, Germany, Canada, etc. - although I’d note that our GDP is much higher than those countries as well.
Using the author’s figures, an immigrant in Sweden costs $15k in government services in their first year.
Texas has had 1.5 million immigrants in one year.
If Texans had Sweden's level of social spending then the immigration policies would cost $22,500,000,000 - and that’s just for immigrants in one year, not for existing citizens. The US’s entire federal budget for 2023 was $6.13 trillion.
I would love to have Sweden’s level of social spending for American citizens, but the math of increasing social spending to Swedish levels doesn’t work with open immigration policies.
There is no hatred or racism here. The author and I both have immense respect for people looking to migrate to improve the lives of their families.
This is not from the book, but I personally would say an argument can definitely be made that choosing the pro-business policy (as Texas/USA has) of allowing immigration to bolster our labor supply will keep labor prices and general prices down in the long run while also keeping our demographic profile healthy with plenty of young taxpayers to support the elderly.
I would add that this pro-immigration stance seems viable to me if we can ensure that the labor is being conducted and taxed in the regulated market, not the exploitative shadow economy, but we would also possibly need import tariffs to make sure that this local labor is competitive in the global market despite being taxed more to pay for the aforementioned social policies.
Again, not from the book, but we have a society where most American parents do not want their children to take jobs on construction sites (or any sort of manual labor) once they turn 18. They want their kids to go get degrees and work office jobs. Simultaneously, our society is calling for growth in the construction sector for housing and infrastructure projects.
Someone has to work those job sites (and in our factories and warehouses) and I would argue that America has an asset in the form of our immigration pipeline providing labor which outweighs the burden of population growth. Especially when you look at countries such as Japan or China which have upside-down demographic pyramids.
It is a tough decision for a policy maker to face, but I think it is clear that a politician arguing for open borders while also promising to implement nationalized "free" healthcare, education, housing, etc. is either an uninformed politician or thinks their voters are uninformed.
That was an unfortunately long review, but I found myself very fascinated with the author's thought provoking commentary.
And again, unlike this wall of text, the book weaves in plenty of great graphs to carry the narrative.
However, the author is a practicing hedge fund manager who has no aversion to profit seeking investments, but the author also has the academic credentials (Belgian Postgrad and Stanford PHD) and social background being from Belgium to offer truly interesting perspectives on how a government can prioritize investments in its population while still encouraging private businesses to drive and grow an economy.
I disagree with many of the reviews citing bias. If anything I think this book has some of the most respectful and logical explanations or why populist and/or nativist political parties have become upset with the economic consequences of globalization and central bank quantitative easing. I say populist/nativist instead of right wing, because in the EU examples cited by the author many left wing politicians are able to articulate an anti open immigration position as being something to protect working class citizens consistent with their workers party value, which is not something really discussed by the democratic party in the US.
The author gives a simple cause and effect framework that doesn’t need to resort to calling his political opponents racists or idiots, as is unfortunately common today.
The author does argue for plenty of traditionally left wing policies, such as business regulation reform, monopoly busting, tax policy reform, political donation limitation, healthcare reform, etc. - but I’d like to focus this review on those two points I mentioned that I feel the author did very well to explain the reaction of right wing politicians being voted into office and how much they, ironically, have in common with traditional left wing view points on the subjects of globalization weakening blue collar industrial labor, quantitative easing widening the wealth gap, and social spending being impossible due to inefficient or unfair allocation, including to unauthorized immigrants. The author does do a decent job of bridging the gap to show that many of these business regulations are ironically proposed to try to make the market more free and unencumbered, as the author provides several arguments and data sets to try to show that the current market is dominated by large monopolistic players and is less "free" due to their free reign to act.
The author gives plenty of examples of globalization causing local workforces to have to compete with global labor, as local businesses have to pay income taxes while competing with imported goods from countries that don’t have similar or sufficient levels of social spending or taxes.
Also a significant focus of the book is QE causing asset price inflation/bubbles, which increasingly punish and shut the door for those who did not start with assets, reducing the American dream of class mobility.
The author also cleanly and without xenophobia explains that open door immigration is fundamentally incompatible with open door publicly funded services such as healthcare or full education from birth through college, because the local taxpayers of any given country are unable to pay for the housing, healthcare, and education of the entire world.
The USA has ~50m total foreign born residents, about 5x more than other countries generally seen has having better social safety nets, such as France, Germany, Canada, etc. - although I’d note that our GDP is much higher than those countries as well.
Using the author’s figures, an immigrant in Sweden costs $15k in government services in their first year.
Texas has had 1.5 million immigrants in one year.
If Texans had Sweden's level of social spending then the immigration policies would cost $22,500,000,000 - and that’s just for immigrants in one year, not for existing citizens. The US’s entire federal budget for 2023 was $6.13 trillion.
I would love to have Sweden’s level of social spending for American citizens, but the math of increasing social spending to Swedish levels doesn’t work with open immigration policies.
There is no hatred or racism here. The author and I both have immense respect for people looking to migrate to improve the lives of their families.
This is not from the book, but I personally would say an argument can definitely be made that choosing the pro-business policy (as Texas/USA has) of allowing immigration to bolster our labor supply will keep labor prices and general prices down in the long run while also keeping our demographic profile healthy with plenty of young taxpayers to support the elderly.
I would add that this pro-immigration stance seems viable to me if we can ensure that the labor is being conducted and taxed in the regulated market, not the exploitative shadow economy, but we would also possibly need import tariffs to make sure that this local labor is competitive in the global market despite being taxed more to pay for the aforementioned social policies.
Again, not from the book, but we have a society where most American parents do not want their children to take jobs on construction sites (or any sort of manual labor) once they turn 18. They want their kids to go get degrees and work office jobs. Simultaneously, our society is calling for growth in the construction sector for housing and infrastructure projects.
Someone has to work those job sites (and in our factories and warehouses) and I would argue that America has an asset in the form of our immigration pipeline providing labor which outweighs the burden of population growth. Especially when you look at countries such as Japan or China which have upside-down demographic pyramids.
It is a tough decision for a policy maker to face, but I think it is clear that a politician arguing for open borders while also promising to implement nationalized "free" healthcare, education, housing, etc. is either an uninformed politician or thinks their voters are uninformed.
That was an unfortunately long review, but I found myself very fascinated with the author's thought provoking commentary.
And again, unlike this wall of text, the book weaves in plenty of great graphs to carry the narrative.
October 20, 2024
“The Economics of Discontent: From Failing Elites to The Rise of Populism” by Jean-Michel Paul is an insightful exploration of the global discontent fueling populist movements across the world. The book analyzes how economic policies driven by elite interests have led to widespread inequality, stagnation, and frustration, which in turn have catalyzed the rise of populism. The author does a commendable job breaking down complex economic forces and their societal consequences, making the material accessible and relevant.
What makes this book particularly compelling is its ability to link economic failures with the social and political unrest we’re witnessing globally. The rise of populism is framed not merely as a political phenomenon but as a reaction to the deep-rooted economic disenfranchisement of large swathes of society. Paul argues persuasively for the need to address these economic grievances to prevent further destabilization.
In addition to his thorough analysis, Paul offers easy-to-understand solutions that could help address these issues and reduce the growing divide between elites and the general population. His proposals are practical, making the book not only a diagnosis of current challenges but also a roadmap toward resolving them.
One of the book’s key strengths is its broad applicability—Paul’s analysis and solutions can be applied to almost any country facing similar issues of inequality and discontent, making it globally relevant.
Highly recommended for those interested in understanding the underlying economic causes of current political turbulence. More people should read this book to grasp the full scope of how economics shape our social and political realities, and how we can begin to fix them across diverse national contexts.
What makes this book particularly compelling is its ability to link economic failures with the social and political unrest we’re witnessing globally. The rise of populism is framed not merely as a political phenomenon but as a reaction to the deep-rooted economic disenfranchisement of large swathes of society. Paul argues persuasively for the need to address these economic grievances to prevent further destabilization.
In addition to his thorough analysis, Paul offers easy-to-understand solutions that could help address these issues and reduce the growing divide between elites and the general population. His proposals are practical, making the book not only a diagnosis of current challenges but also a roadmap toward resolving them.
One of the book’s key strengths is its broad applicability—Paul’s analysis and solutions can be applied to almost any country facing similar issues of inequality and discontent, making it globally relevant.
Highly recommended for those interested in understanding the underlying economic causes of current political turbulence. More people should read this book to grasp the full scope of how economics shape our social and political realities, and how we can begin to fix them across diverse national contexts.
February 8, 2023
Very interesting book for non economists who are wondering why populism in the western world is on the rise. It touches issues like rise of inequality, limits of fiscal and monetary policies. It briefly discusses ideas for western governments where to spend their budgets to get back on track of good governing. A must read for mediocre politicians in the west who no longer know much of economic policies for good government!
October 21, 2024
The Economics of Discontent
Excellent book rewarding under one administration we balance then another administration comes along and destroy it. I would recommend this book for all to read!
Excellent book rewarding under one administration we balance then another administration comes along and destroy it. I would recommend this book for all to read!
February 23, 2025
decent
Quite a detailed book that covers a lot of subject areas. But it was not the kind of book I had in mind. Kudos to the author for the research needed to complete this tract.
Quite a detailed book that covers a lot of subject areas. But it was not the kind of book I had in mind. Kudos to the author for the research needed to complete this tract.
March 11, 2025
There it is at last.
An answer to 99 % of my "WTF is going on?" questions.
Most of the underlying information and concepts are way over my head, over my clearance level too!
And that can only be because It is Genius!
Kind of for geniuses eyes only!
An answer to 99 % of my "WTF is going on?" questions.
Most of the underlying information and concepts are way over my head, over my clearance level too!
And that can only be because It is Genius!
Kind of for geniuses eyes only!
October 6, 2020
Jean-Michel Paul provides a stark look at the world that we live in and offers an explanation of how we got here.
November 2, 2020
Thorough and Thoughtful
Usage of details to summary adds to topic absorption. Distinguishing between fact and speculation is appreciated. Will think I through notes taken.
Usage of details to summary adds to topic absorption. Distinguishing between fact and speculation is appreciated. Will think I through notes taken.
August 17, 2023
Loved this book. Feel like this really has happened and people need to be aware.....
December 26, 2024
Judge this book by its index and you will not be disappointed.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews