The Price of Tomorrow is Jeff Booth’s argument that the economy is caught in a tug-of-war between two forces: technology, which drives prices down through efficiency gains, and monetary policy, which drives prices up through money creation. Booth, a tech entrepreneur who built one of Canada’s largest home-renovation platforms, argues that technology is winning the long-term battle, that the natural direction of prices in a technologically advancing economy is down, and that the attempt to fight this with inflation is causing serious problems.
The book covers the deflationary effects of technology across multiple sectors. Solar energy costs have dropped over 99% since the 1970s. Computing costs drop roughly 50% every 18 months. The marginal cost of digital goods (software, media, information) is approaching zero. Booth argues that as AI and automation spread, these deflationary effects will accelerate and eventually reach sectors like healthcare, education, and construction that have so far resisted them.
The monetary policy sections explain why central banks fear deflation and respond by expanding the money supply. Booth argues that this response, while it prevents the short-term pain of falling prices, creates a different set of problems: asset inflation (housing, stocks, and other investments become unaffordable for people who don’t already own them), rising inequality, and increasing debt levels that make the entire financial system more fragile.
For founders and business builders, the deflationary lens is useful for strategic thinking. If technology is making your industry’s products cheaper over time, your pricing strategy and business model need to account for that trend rather than fighting it. Booth also discusses Bitcoin as a potential deflationary monetary system, which is relevant for founders thinking about cryptocurrency and decentralized finance, though that section may not age as well as the technology analysis.
The writing is clear and accessible for an economics book. Booth avoids jargon and explains monetary policy concepts in plain language. The book is relatively short and moves quickly through its argument. Some economists disagree with Booth’s analysis, particularly his characterization of deflation as inherently positive, and it is worth reading counterarguments. But as a framework for thinking about how technology affects prices and what that means for business, the book offers a perspective that most business books don’t cover.
