Rational Exuberance: The Influence of Generation X on the New American Economy

Where does Bagby, a law student and regular reporter on Gen-X issues for CNN's Financial News Network, fit in the deluge of printed matter about Americans born between 1964 and 1976? Unlike many of her cohorts who focus on ""cultural"" aspects of the crowd, Bagby defines the Gen-X era as ""The Age of Economics."" Despite higher levels of education and employment, she reports, Gen-Xers are making relatively less than their parents did, contending with a shrinking social safety net and accruing more debt--all of which makes monetary matters their main preoccupation (rather than, say, the idealism of the boomers in their heyday). Having thus defined members of Generation X as fiscal creatures, Bagby next tries to defend them with profiles of successful, rationally exuberant members of their ilk: fitness executives, publishers, pollsters and bankers. She cites savings rates, successful start-ups and business school retreads as examples of how most Gen-Xers are not the lazy, aimless underachievers older generations make them out to be. But Bagby's central thesis that Generation X is defined by economics remains murky when viewed through a more historical lens. Haven't all generations been more or less defined by the economics of their time? Bagby (The Annual Report of the United States of America) is strongest when she sticks to real-life stories of Gen-Xers, and often makes a compelling advocate for their interests. (Sept.)