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AGEQUAKE

RIDING THE DEMOGRAPHIC ROLLERCOASTER SHAKING BUSINESS, FINANCE AND OUR WORLD

Paul Wallace

"DO read Agequake... Wallace gives balanced in-depth coverage. Agequake provides fascinating insights, which are justified in depth... it is an important book."
Strategy

"Paul Wallace... has now published a very important book, in which he outlines the demographic changes which are going to shape the next century."
William Rees Mogg, Strategic Investment Newsletter

The demographic foundations that we take for granted - an ever-expanding and youthful population are slipping beneath our feet. As people live longer and fewer children are born, a seismic shift is under way in the age profile of populations: the agequake.

Through the long vistas of history, societies have been extraordinarily young with an average age of 20. But within our lifetime, the average age will rise towards 50 in the West and Japan. For the first time in history older people will outnumber children. And as birthrates plummet around the world we will no longer be facing that old bogey, world overpopulation, but a population implosion.

The agequake is bigger than the fate of any single generation. It is a truly global phenomenon, embracing the developing countries even more quickly than the West.

The new age of humanity will require wrenching adjustment to everything from property values to pension promises, from investment strategies to the world of work, from youth culture to individual lifestyles, but now is the time to adjust our mindset, change the way we view our future and prepare in earnest for the agequake.

Paul Wallace writes, lectures and broadcasts widely about international economics and the social and economic effects of population ageing and was previously economics editor of The Independent. He has made and presented programmes on business and finance and the cultural impact of ageing for the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. After graduating from Cambridge, he was awarded an M Phil at the London School of Economics.