Some of this is questionable. For example, he claims that "by the 1980s... saving became passe" but that doesn't make sense. If anything, saving was useless in the 1970s and earlier, when inflation was out of control at more than 15%. It's kind of weird to be in favor of soft money and deficit spending, as he clearly is, and then get upset about mounting debt.

There are a lot of reasons why a London home that was 300,00k in the 1970s is now worth three times that. More people are living in London now than then, and due to London's "green belt" policies and height and zoning restrictions, there just hasn't been a great supply of new houses.

Tom doesn't even mention things like the oil shock, the impact of technology and automation, or demographics. It's kind of hard to get a reasonable picture of the economy without considering these things!

I agree with the basic point that we should have more Keynesian spending, but the history felt like a distraction. Calling the 70s a "golden age" is just... what is this, I don't even. Yeah, with the Vietnam war, OPEC, Silent Spring, and the threat of nuclear war, it was a real picnic...