Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages

Kindle. I like the book. It's an economics book to me and I enjoy reading about the framework of technological revolutions. The author's definition of technology does not limit to computer technology. The author means changes in the way people live, function, and work that is so significant and widespread that it is worth calling a technological revolution. In this book, she details 5 distinct enough technological revolutions spanning over 200 years. Industrial Revolution, Age of Steam and Railways, Age of Steel, Electricity and Heavy Engineering, Age of Oil, the Automobile and Mass Production, and Age of Information and Telecommunications. Her research shows that each of these periods last between 40 and 60 years. While the author believes it is helpful to classify and categorize these periods to help explain history, she makes clear that these categorizations in no way mean putting a straightjacket on history or the future. It is meant as a fluid process of history and how to make sense of what happened. Within each period, there are 4 distinct stages that define that period. They are Irruption, Frenzy, Synergy and Maturity. She explains in detail what each of these stages mean and how they interact with each other as well as how they interact with financial capital. Overall, to me, this is an advanced book on how to look at history on technological revolutions and it does have implications for people who want to be an entrepreneur. Perhaps if history repeats itself and the Age of Information and Telecommunications started in 1971, this is 2023 and it has been 52 years since the Age started, this could mean the Maturity phase of this Age and the beginning of a new revolution.

This book is a must-read. As someone who has been involved with computer/networking technology for over 30 years and high-tech finance for more than 20, I'm confident that there is nothing that surpasses this work in capturing the times in which we live. This book is simply a modern classic.With this book in hand you will find yourself saying, "How could anyone have missed the Internet 'crash' of 2000?" Of course it had to happen. Then you will be asking yourself, "When will we get past the frenzied hype about these technologies so we can finally make all this really useful?" Just as Perez has been asking.Throughout the 1980's and 1990's as a Wall Street analyst following technology companies, I regularly polled economists about the impact of computers and networks. At first there was no response. Later, we all began to hear about the "New Economy" and how everything had completely changed in economics. Yes, this was a pretty transparent attempt to rationalize stock valuations that had gone into orbit. In many ways it was even worse than no response at all.It wasn't until I read Technological Revolutions and began to look into why mainstream economists have had so little to say about technology, that I learned there was a fight over all this in the 1930/40s. Many were involved but Harvard's Joseph Schumpeter who authored Business Cycles in 1938 putting technology at center stage- was among the losers. Future generations of economists rarely delved into Schumpeter's heterodoxy. Fortunately, Perez revives the Schumpeterian tradition with a powerful reinterpretation and combines economics and technology with a clear and convincing voice.History is a pattern, not an endless repeating cycle but a distinct and discernable pattern. Perez has given us the outlines of that pattern, making all our jobs a great deal easier. Whether you're in the technology business or in finance or policy or just trying to make intelligent choices in a complicated world, you will benefit and learn from this book. What comes next is going to be important, on many levels, and understanding that in the past others successfully faced similar challenges - not just once but with each technological revolution -- should help to give us courage to face our own.

That should be the title of this book! The author separates then documents the evolution, development, and finally, expiration of several technology bubbles, starting with the use of steam to power large mills in England in the late 1700s. Next came railroads, then steel, then mass production, and finally integrated circuits. Several subcycles can be identified in EACH major technology cycle--new technology (expensive but not widespread and largely self funded), the finance people see there is money to be made so start investing, they overinvest, a bubble bursts, financial carnage and major shifts in job and consumer markets occur, technology becomes cheaper as it becomes more widespread, finance people start to see successively smaller margins (profits that is) from that technology. A new technology is just starting to be developed, but the finance people don't see it and won't invest. Finally profits from the previous technology are all taken, the finance people wake up and see the potential to make profits from the new technology, the cycle repeats.

I am really enjoying this book. Published in 2002, I wish she would update it for 2016.But overall it does provide a useful framework for the role of finance in the various bubbles since the 1800s, at least the bubbles that were technology based.Very accessible to an interested reader. A tad more than a modicum of economics background is all that is needed, but if you have much more, you'll not be bored either, I imagine.I'm in a startup and as I read thru the various chapters, I am constantly analyzing about how our company and target market fit into this framework.Useful thought exercises.

This book is one of the most important books to understand how technological revolutions drive the modern economy. I liked this book because it lays out a compelling case how technology drives the long-wave economic cycle. Perez's work builds on economists Schumpeter and Kondratiev from the 1920's and 1930's. If you want to know more about the dot-com bubble, the internet and investing and the latest wave with cryptocurrency, I think this is a core book to read.

I think the author's objective is very interesting and there is definitely a need for a book of this scope to follow up on Schumpeter's framework. Academic economics generally has very little to say about innovation and it is treated as an exogenous parameter ("it just happens"). I found the first part of the book, which focused on the structure of innovation, very useful and it definitely helped improve my thinking on the topic (5*). The second part, which focused on the finance of innovation, was not as strong in my view (3*). I fail to see any further contribution beyond what Kindleberger had to say. The link that the author develops seems superficial in my opinion. I was also expecting to see perhaps an in-depth treatment on the special role of Venture Capital or government military research funding. The author's model of innovation is promising but more work is needed.

This is a superb exposition of how technology changes our world over the longer term in a series of cycles lasting roughly 60 - 80 years. The theories are all explained in simple and easy to understand language, and appended with clear examples.The current cycle that we are experiencing started in 1971, so depending on when you were born you might find this to be a revelatory text, explaining much of what has happened over the course of your life. In my case for example, as a 40 something, that's my entire life encapsulated as the 1st half of one cycle. Moreover, we are now at the most challenging and important part of the cycle when the fundamental underlying realities of our society need to be radically overhauled, primarily through intelligent governance. If you want to understand how the various power groups of the world are intersecting across the capitalist playing field, right now, this book is essential reading.

Carlota Perez's views of the interplay between technology, economy, and society make of this book a true classic in the lineage of Schumpeter's work on innovation. Highly recommendable.

If you work in technology you must absolutely buy this book. The entire thing is a brilliant tour de force in finance meeting technology revolutions.

Super insights from Perez. Would be great to update for 21st Century eg Bitcoin... Some really fantastic insights and research. Well worth the very high price!