It’s So Over, We’re So Back: Doomer Techno-Optimism (2024)

REVIEW ESSAY Boom: Bubbles and the End of Stagnation by Byrne Hobart and Tobias Huber Stripe Press, 2024, 304 pages The New Lunar Society: An Enlightenment Guide to the Next Industrial Revolution by David A. Mindell MIT Press, 2025, 288 pages Tyler Cowen caused quite a stir when he published The Great Stagnation in 2011, claiming America achieved success by eating “all the low-hanging fruit of modern history” and was in for a period of stagnation. American productivity had basically been flat since 1973 and was under further strain from unproductive spending in government, health care, and education. David Brooks of the New York Times claimed that Stagnation “has become the most debated nonfiction book so far this year.”1 Cowen was heralded as America’s hottest economist by Bloomberg and Forbes. Apparently, Brooks and many others were surprised to learn they were living through a Great Stagnation. As Americans emerged from the Great Recession, Cowen encouraged them to assess th ... Read full article.