“Nothing lasts; life is nothing but change.”
This is a substantial reference work that requires a methodical approach to fully grasp its contents.
Jean Barrère highlights imbalances that have changed everything! Even the analytical tools of political economy now belong to a world where products, markets, and boundaries have fundamentally shifted in nature.
The gap is widening, the author notes, driven by technologies governed by a hyper-powerful mechanism in which growth begets growth—a virtuous, self-reinforcing spiral. We are worlds away from the classical law of diminishing returns.
The book dissects this unique phenomenon of rent reinforcement across three sections and ten chapters, shedding light on the concepts, their foundations, measurement methods, temporal metrics, and associated risks.
The author outlines the exponential dynamics inherent to the digital economy—characterized by its structure, regime shifts, and capacity for market lock-in. Notably, this exponential trajectory requires a different financing model than a linear one.
He reminds us that the battle for digital sovereignty is not primarily fought at the level of visible applications. Instead, the infrastructure should be viewed as a stack of bottlenecks comprising various constituent layers.
Generative AI is spreading at breakneck speed, and the capital being mobilized is surging furiously.
Yet, power within this market structure remains heavily concentrated, despite any decline in token value. “Superstar firms” already command a massive installed base.
The real issue at stake is not the disappearance of work, but rather the pace at which new tasks are created and how productivity gains are shared.
Admittedly, governance technology is advancing more rapidly than the legal frameworks intended to regulate it. However, given the pace at which the industrial policy shaping the digital economic landscape is evolving, only a few hyperscalers will remain, exercising absolute control over the sector’s infrastructure.
Among its other merits, this book appears to be particularly timely!
Jean Barrere is a strategy and artificial intelligence consulting partner at the firm Accurency and a lecturer in the economics of the digital sector at the University of Paris-Panthéon-Assas.
Book review by Freddi Godet des Marais – Club Turgot 2026