Between March 2009 and February 2025, the S&P 500 index rose by more than 700%. In the same period, gold tripled in value, the average American home doubled in price, and cryptocurrencies crashed into existence and then soared to a total valuation of $3 trillion. But this vast accumulation of wealth is not a sign of economic health. The world is now awash with so much money that investors struggle to find productive outlets for their cash. In Surplus, leading economic thinker Marc Chandler argues that too much of a good thing can bring a society to its knees. After decades of striving for more, humanity is now at risk of suffocating under the weight of an unprecedented economic surplus - a global excess of both capital and productive capacity that has grown so large that it is impossible to accommodate. This surplus has already reshaped the societies we live in, fostering inequality and creating social and political strains that threaten the foundations of the Western world order. Surplus: The History of Too Much and the End of Economic Primacy offers a unified theory of surplus, tracing how surpluses have shaped human societies from the first agricultural surpluses that enabled the rise of cities and complex civilizations, to today's unprecedented global surplus of goods and capital, to show how different forms of surplus have repeatedly forced societies to develop new institutional arrangements and value systems. Today we face another such transformation, one that challenges the dominance of pure market thinking just as previous surpluses challenged earlier social orders. Our current challenges are neither unprecedented nor insurmountable, but rather part of a recurring pattern of change to which societies must find new ways to adapt. We are not witnessing the end of capitalism, but rather its evolution toward a more nuanced understanding of human flourishing. In this thoughtful examination of our economic evolution, Chandler argues that we need to rethink capitalism itself: we must cultivate new views of what it means to be prosperous, find new ways of balancing freedom and equality, allow environmental protection to take precedence over pure profit maximization, and enable broader concerns about social equity to be taken seriously once more basic needs are met. Surplus signals that the supremacy of economic values over other social goods is coming to an end and shows us a way forward to a healthier economic world for all.
Marc Chandler is one of the most highly respected and widely quoted currency experts in the United States today, with more than three decades of experience analyzing the global capital markets and advising private businesses, hedge funds, and major public institutions on policy and market behavior. Formerly the Chief Currency Strategist at HSBC and Global Head of Currency Strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman, in 2018, Chandler joined Bannockburn Global Forex, where he currently serves as Managing Director and Chief Market Strategist. Chandler is a daily presence in the financial press with frequent appearances on major media outlets such as CNBC, CNBC Asia, FOX Business, and Bloomberg TV and Radio. His writing and commentary have been featured by Barron's, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, The Nation and the Washington Post, among others. Known for his colorful and incisive takes on global financial and economic news, Chandler is also a sought-after speaker at industry events across the United States. He served for 24 years as a professor at New York University's Center for Global Affairs, where he also sat on the advisory board. He has also taught at Fordham's Graduate Business School and is an honorary visiting professor at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. An honorary fellow of the Foreign Policy Association and a Business Visionary named by Forbes, Chandler is the author of Making Sense of the Dollar and Political Economy of Tomorrow. He lives in Manhattan, New York.
