Joseph C. Sternberg

THE THEFT OF A DECADE:

How the Baby Boomers Stole

the Millennials' Economic Future

"[Sternberg] casts 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

Millennials should have everything going for them. America has never been so prosperous, the world has never been so interconnected, and no generation has ever been as educated or resourceful as today's young adults. Yet when the financial crisis hit, the Great Recession sent them into a tailspin that has never been reversed. That wasn't an accident. The Baby Boomers did it.

The Boomers’ reaction to the crisis was brutal: aging politicians and policy makers made decisions that favored their interests over their heirs. They abandoned investing for the future and instead mortgaged that future to pay for the economic sins of the present. The large can of debt that they kicked down the road would be the Millennials’ problem to deal with.

Now Millennials struggle to land good jobs, labor under student loans they may never be able to repay, see their dreams of homeownership fade, and will inherit a bankrupt government. An entire generation's future has been stolen in broad daylight. The Theft of Decade shows how.

See What Others Are Saying About The Theft of a Decade:

"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

"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)

"The Theft of a Decade by borderline millennial Joseph Sternberg (born in 1982) exhibits unexpected sensitivity towards its villains. . . . 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

"[The Theft of a Decade] provides insight into the way that the post-Great-Recession cohort has both chosen and been forced to live its life. The novel life-course choices Millennials make are revealed not merely as a product of culture or of economics, but of both, insofar as each is intimately linked to the other."

-- The Washington Free Beacon