The Theft of a Decade: How the Baby Boomers Stole the Millennials' Economic Future

by Joseph C. Sternberg

Overview

A Wall Street Journal columnist delivers a brilliant narrative of the mugging of the millennial generation— how the Baby Boomers have stolen the millennials' future in order to ensure themselves a comfortable present

The Theft of a Decade is a contrarian, revelatory analysis of how one generation pulled the rug out from under another, and the myriad consequences that has set in store for all of us. The millennial generation was the unfortunate victim of several generations of economic theories that made life harder for them than it was for their grandparents.


Then came the crash of 2008, and the Boomer generation's reaction to it was brutal: politicians and policy makers made deliberate decisions that favored the interests of the Boomer generation over their heirs, the most egregious being over the use of monetary policy, fiscal policy and regulation. For the first time in recent history, policy makers gave up on investing for the future and instead mortgaged that future to pay for the ugly economic sins of the present.


This book describes a new economic crisis, a sinister tectonic shift that is stealing a generation's future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781541742369
Publisher:	PublicAffairs
Publication date:	05/14/2019
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Joseph C. Sternberg is editorial-page editor and European political-economy columnist for the Wall Street Journal's European edition. He joined the Journal in 2006 as an editorial writer in Hong Kong, where he also edited the Business Asia column. Born in 1982, he lives in London.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Taking a Bite Out of the Big Avocado of Life 1

Chapter 1 The Young and the Workless 25

Chapter 2 Not Our Parents' Job Market 45

Chapter 3 Human-Capital Punishment 75

Chapter 4 Millennius Domesticus 109

Chapter 5 The Saturday-Morning Bank Heist 145

Chapter 6 Their Present, Our Future 177

Chapter 7 Millennial in Charge 211

Epilogue: Hiding in Plain Sight 237

Acknowledgments 239

Notes 241

Index 265

Editorial Reviews

03/25/2019

Wall Street Journal editor Sternberg provides a riveting account of the economic fallout of the 2007–2009 Great Recession, which drastically diminished the financial outlook for an entire generation of Americans. Sternberg demonstrates how this recession affected the employment options of the then-youngest American workers, as entry-level job openings constricted and older Americans were forced to put off retiring, preventing younger workers from advancing into higher-level positions. He argues the student debt crisis is largely a result of baby boomers encouraging youth to think of college as an “investment,” despite strong evidence from economic studies that this is not always the case. He also narrates in detail the history of home ownership in America, culminating in a critical analysis of the irresponsible mortgage lending practices that fed into the crash. Sternberg’s account is distinctly nonpartisan, critiquing both Reagan-era supply-side economics and the Affordable Care Act’s lengthy delaying of the taxes that are meant to pay for it. Sternberg carefully guides the reader through a rather labyrinthine thicket of complicated terms and numbers in largely accessible fashion. This is a must-read for cash-strapped millennials seeking to learn precisely how employment, investment, taxation, and the government’s social safety net programs have changed drastically over the past generation. Agent: Zoe Pagnamenta, Zoe Pagnamenta Agency. (May)

Publishers Weekly

"A thoughtful, nuanced, and important light on the plight of Millennials. Crucially, Sternberg does it from a center-right, pro-market perspective rather than from the more familiar, center-left view that often gets mired in larger identity-politics formulations."—Jonah Goldberg, National Review

"Thoughtful and nuanced... Sternberg successfully makes the case that millennials face real problems because circumstances have changed. Those problems should generate both sympathy and solutions."—Ramesh Ponnuru, Bloomberg Opinion

"The Theft of a Decade by borderline millennial Joseph Sternberg (born in 1982) exhibits unexpected sensitivity towards its villains... Sternberg, a US-born, London-based member of The Wall Street Journal's editorial board, prefers earnest discussion of Clinton-era labour reforms to cultural boomer-bashing... He slams misguided fiscal reforms and loose monetary policy for fuelling the financial crisis that left millennials entering the job market during a historic downturn and convincingly attributes the slow recovery on the fact that the establishment's solution consisted of more of the same - job-killing regulation and Fed-fuelled money out of a helicopter... Sternberg is sharpest and most persuasive when applying a conservative lens to debates such as those around tax cuts or the gig economy."—Financial News of London

"A compelling summary of the conversations the Millennials are most interested in having."—LSE Review of Books

"A suggestive essay in demographics and political trends."—Kirkus Reviews

"Riveting.. This is a must-read for cash-strapped millennials seeking to learn precisely how employment, investment, taxation, and the government's social safety net programs have changed drastically over the past generation."—Publishers Weekly

"If you're a Millennial, I strongly recommend this engaging book. It will arm you with all the facts you need about the problems you will face in the labor market, education, housing, and paying down the enormous debt left by your Boomer parents. And after you read it, PLEASE don't forget to vote!"—Isabel Sawhill, senior fellow at The Brookings Institution and author of Forgotten Americans: An Economic Agenda for a Divided Nation

"The Theft of a Decade shows how the same solutions tried over and over by Republicans and Democrats alike have not worked, and cannot work in the future. Both sides recognize that something has gone terribly wrong in our economy. But so far, neither has been willing to do the hard work of rethinking our approach to everything from education to monetary policy. Joseph Sternberg makes the strong case that we need to offer a new approach to solving our nation's problems, and resist the urge to double down on the failed policies of the past. This should be required reading, not just for millennials, but for all Americans."—Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI)

From the Publisher

2019-03-17
Of spendthrift elders and strapped youth, their respective lots accidents of birth mixed with a hefty dose of politics.

Born in 1982, Wall Street Journal editorial board member Sternberg immediately indicates his thesis in the subtitle: The economic habits of the baby boomer generation, born "between the end of World War II and the introduction of the birth control pill," will weigh forever on later generations. In 2020, millennials will be more numerous than boomers, but boomers will nevertheless be a burden for decades to come, draining social welfare funds even as their younger counterparts struggle to foot the bill. For the last decade, writes the author, "the main entitlement trend has been that Millennials are losing the ability to pay for these benefits. The evaporation of a political willingness to pay won't be far behind." Numerous trends contribute to this situation, foremost the fact that many millennials are outside the normal job track, having come of age during the Great Recession and never having been able to catch up. Sternberg's account opens with the rather frivolous example of the price of avocado toast, but it builds on more substantial turf, including the elusiveness of the dream of owning a home, finding a meaningful way to participate in the workforce, and saving money for future needs. As it is, he writes, millennials have been staying in school (and in their parents' homes), at great cost not just to themselves, but to the larger economy. Sternberg's argument is made without rancor, but parts of it seem misplaced: The chief enemies of the millennials would seem to be structural and predate the earlier birth cohort. However, he also makes the good point that people born into times of plenty behave economically differently from those born into times of want, with the result that members of the younger group "appear to be the most financially cautious generation since the cohort who grew up in the middle of the Great Depression."

A suggestive essay in demographics and political trends.

Kirkus Reviews