At the end of the 1990s, high finance in Canada experienced an unprecedented boom: the stock market, banks, and mutual funds were are all growing at a record rate.

Author Jim Stanford examines the world of high finance in this revealing book. Although the sale and purchase of financial assets grew exponentially during the nineties, the performance of the real economy was dismal by comparison. Stagnant production of real goods and services failed to keep up with explosive growth in the world of finance. Paper Boom examines alternative policy directions with regard to real investment, job creation, and productivity.

Paper Boom is a wide-ranging examination of the Canadian economy in the 1990s, highlighting the contrast between a booming paper economy and a stagnant real economy.

JIM STANFORD is an economist with the Canadian Auto Workers and one of Canada’s best-known economic commentators. He is a visiting fellow with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives in Ottawa and has been one of the principal authors of the Alternative Federal Budget. He lives in Halifax with his partner and daughter.

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"The book is a timely, impressively researched and accessible analysis of one of the most obscure and important components of capitalist economy - the financial system. Stanford provides a devastating critique of Canada's booming paper economy and right-wing economic policies, but not without challenging many ideas widely held on the left. I found myself cheering for Stanford with every blow he deals the financial Goliath. He brilliantly exposes how the financial sector, with its focus on paper trading, fails to channel savings into real job-creating and socially useful investments - the ostensible reason for its existence. He explodes the myth of 'people's capitalism'... for the long term, he puts forward a visionary, alternative model of social investment. Stanford's ideas are well worth wrestling with. Invest in this book."

"My hunch is that Paper Boom has a chance to be a major marker in popular political and economic analysis, say like John Porter's The Vertical Mosiac (1965). In paperback its 473 pages are laced with wit, anecdotes, jolting quotes, and scores of lucid charts and graphs.
Jim Stanford is easy to follow. It's not that he ignores complexities of cause and effect but he's set on being readable to most adult citizens, not just his professional peers. This may be a 'must' book for you as either voter or investor."

"In 1997 Boom, Bust and Echo was the book everyone had to read. In 2000, it could be Jim Stanford's Paper Boom.Paper Boom is simply the best business book of the year... it is really the only decent description of what is happening to the Canadian economy. Stanford...has a broad and detailed knowledge of policy issues and the way financial markets work. And he can write."

"In this media-saturated age, being both telegenic and articulate cannot but help enhance one's public profile. Jim Stanford possesses both attributes, but his contributions command attention because his voice is different from most. Specifically, his is a voice from the Left, and he always has something both interesting and substantive to say. Its scope is ambitious and its content is rich. Stanford's writing style is accessible and virtually devoid of jargon... This book should be of great interest and relevance to any Canadian interested in economic theory, economic policy and progressive social change."

"For anybody interested in how the best left-wing economists ply their trade, this readable, engaging book will flesh out the vague impression of economic malaise most Canadians gain from their own bank statements."

"A remarkable book by union economist and rising CAW star Jim Stanford."

"An economist with the Canadian Auto Workers, Jim Stanford writes in an engaging, jargon-free style that academic Leftists (such as this reviewer) should strive to emulate... this makes Stanford's multi-layered view of the economy accessible to readers who have never taken an undergraduate Economics course."

"Jim Stanford is a rare bird--an economist with attitude. In this powerful, highly readable book, Stanford marshals an army of evidence to explode the myth that we're all winners in Bay Street's paper game."

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"This is clearly an important book, excellently argued. It is also extremely wide ranging... Paper Boom thus makes important advances to the analysis of the economic events of the last quarter of a century. Not simply is this a story of interest to Canadians, for Stanford has shown new ways of thinking about the financial economy and its interaction with the real economy, of integrating structural analyses with political analyses of economic conditions."

"Stanford, a staff ecomomist with the Canadian Autoworkers Union is a notably independent thinker, challenging treasured assumptions of both Left and Right as he tries to think his way through to a useful understanding of our current economic problems. If you are one of the lucky few, Stanford's book may help you re-think where you want to stash your surplus. You'll want to read this book before you see your broker or banker. Stanford offers both challenge and vision, original thought and detailed, hard-data research to back it up. This important book is recommended reading for all of us during this grim and confusing season."

"Jim Stanford has presented us with a book that is crammed full of excellent research and discussions of a very wide range of issues concerning the Canadian financial sector. Best of all, he actually says something new and invites us to debate his views."