Boom Bust and Echo 2000 : Profiting from the Demographic Shift in the New Millennium

Demographics - the study of human populations - are a powerful, but often underused, method for understanding the past and predicting the future. In Boom, Bust & Echo 2000: Profiting from the Demographic Shift in the New Millennium, economist David Foot and journalist Daniel Stoffman take a look at the importance of demographics. They try to predict what baby boomers, "baby busters", the "echo generation", and other groups in the coming years can expect. This fully-revised edition of the highly successful Boom, Bust &Echo contains the most recent information on demographic trends in Canada and how they can affect your future.

Demographics play a critical role in the nation's economy and social life, and they affect every one of us as individuals. The more we understand demographic realities, the better prepared we will be to cope with them - and to turn them to our advantage.

In Canada, the aging of those born between 1947 and 1966 - the baby boom generation - has changed the economy, driven housing and other markets, and transformed social mores and lifestyles. As the boomers enter mid-life, as the "baby-busters" behind them come of age, and as the "echo generation," the children of the boomers, reaches maturity, how will the country change? Where will Canadians choose to live? What are the prospects for employment? Which investments will be favoured? What lies ahead for Canada's health care and education systems?

Everyone who plans for the future - whether it be for a large corporation, a retail store, a school system, a nonprofit enterprise, or for personal well-being - needs effective forecasting tools. Boom, Bust & Echo 2000 goes beyond the traditional methods of focus groups and opinion surveys to an analysis of statistical facts. Here is an original and indispensable work filled with arresting insights, provocative assertions, and practical answers.

David K. Foot is an economist and demographer at the University of Toronto and a much sought-after speaker and consultant to corporations, associations, and governments on the implications of demographics for private and public policy. His academic research has stimulated debate on such issues as marketing, organizational change, human resources management, housing, education, employment, and immigration.

Prof. Foot holds a doctorate in economics from Harvard and is the author of numerous scholarly works and popular articles on the economic and social impact of demographic change. He is a two-time recipient of the University of Toronto undergraduate student teaching award, and in 1992 he received a 3M Award for Teaching Excellence from the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.

Daniel Stoffman is a graduate of the University of British Columbia and the London School of Economics. He is an award-winning journalist who has written on business, politics, and social issues for Canada's major magazines, including Report on Business, Canadian Business, Saturday Night, Toronto Life, and Canadian Living. In 1991 he was granted an Atkinson Fellowship to pursue research in the area of Canadian immigration policy; the result was a widely publicized study of current government practices and recommendations for their reform, Toward a More Realistic Immigration Policy for Canada (1993).