Friday November 21, 2008
Business & Investing: Finance
Displayed below are the top selling items for today, Friday November 21, 2008 along with the review customers have voted "most useful".
To find top selling items in for a specific category, use the menu on the left or click here to see all categories.
- The Intelligent Investor Rev Ed. (Collins Business Essentials) by Benjamin Graham
- The Origin of Financial Crises : Central Banks, Credit Bubbles, and the Efficient Market Fallacy (Vintage) by George Cooper
- Enough : True Measures of Money, Business, and Life by John C. Bogle
- The Snowball : Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder
- Raving Fans : A Revolutionary Approach To Customer Service by Kenneth H. Blanchard
- The Subprime Solution : How Today's Global Financial Crisis Happened, and What to Do about It by Robert J. Shiller
- The Snowball : Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder
- The Creature from Jekyll Island : A Second Look at the Federal Reserve by G. Edward Griffin
- Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements : The Search for the Company with a Durable Competitive Advantage by Mary Buffett
- The New Paradigm for Financial Markets : The Credit Crash of 2008 and What It Means by George Soros
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The Intelligent Investor Rev Ed. (Collins Business Essentials)
by Benjamin Graham
(based on 132 customer reviews)
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(Paperback)
Edition: Revised
Author: Benjamin Graham
Publisher: Collins Business
Price: $13.57
You save: $6.38 (32%) off the list price!
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Most useful review as voted by customers:
372 out of 378 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 8/11/03
Classic Investment Book Enhanced for Todayýs Investors
When I first came across the first edition of this book in my local library in 1959, I was a teenager. Back in those days there were only a handful of books about the stock market. And I've read all of them during my junior high and high school years.This latest updated 623-page paperback (the index alone is 33 pages) version updated by Jason Zweig is a welcome addition to this classic. The original chapters are intact, but with footnoted comments by Zweig. Moreover, he provides his own commentary on each chapter contents in a separate chapter following each original chapter. He provides extensive research, charts, tables and commentary that updates the book to the present years. He is not afraid to take on the big guns of Wall Street and show how wrong they were in some of their extremely bullish predictions during January-March 2000, when the market was at its peak.
The first nine chapters cover investing basics that all investors could benefit from. There are many truisms spouted on Wall Street that are not really true. These chapters provide the investor with a realistic picture of how Wall Street works and what investors need to do to come out ahead.
Chapters 10-20 focus strictly on fundamental analysis, stock selection, convertible issues and warrants, and other subjects. Investors who plan to invest directly in stocks should make sure to read these chapters. However, for readers more interested in investing in mutual funds, and in particular index funds, they need not concern themselves with all the detail in these chapters unless they have the time or interest in the subject matter presented.
In conclusion, the combination of pioneer Ben Graham?s original work coupled with Zweig?s meticulous and enjoyable update, make this a remarkable book about investments and investor behavior that every new and experienced investor should read. Of the 500 investing books that I?ve read, this one certainly is one of the greats of all time.
Click here to see more reviews for: The Intelligent Investor Rev Ed. (Collins Business Essentials)
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The Origin of Financial Crises
Central Banks, Credit Bubbles, and the Efficient Market Fallacy (Vintage)
by George Cooper
(based on 6 customer reviews)
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(Paperback)
Author: George Cooper
Publisher: Vintage
Price: $10.36
You save: $2.59 (20%) off the list price!
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Most useful review as voted by customers:
12 out of 15 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 9/16/08
Review in "The Economist"
FYI--this book receives a good review in "Credit and blame: a must-read on the origins of the crisis," The Economist 388(8597), 13 September 2008:79.
"The [credit] crunch has lasted long enough to spawn its own publishing mini-boom, as authors have raced to give their diagnoses in print. George Cooper, a strategist at JPMorgan, an investment bank, has produced by far the best so far, skewering both academic orthodoxy and central bank policy in the process...Mr Cooper's book is by far the most cogent and reasoned of the modern-day 'credit excess' school."
Click here to see more reviews for: The Origin of Financial Crises
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Enough
True Measures of Money, Business, and Life
by John C. Bogle (based on 6 customer reviews)
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(Hardcover)
Author: John C. Bogle
Publisher: Wiley
Price: $16.47
You save: $8.48 (34%) off the list price!
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Most useful review as voted by customers:
17 out of 19 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 11/2/08
When is it enough?
Enough is an unusual book and a suitable wake-up call for Americans. It's unusual because it's written by John Bogle, a man who has spent his career helping people build wealth through investments. You might think his message is, "it's never enough," but it's far from it.
Bogle's effort is dedicated to responsible investing and avoiding a life spent running blind with dollar signs in your eyes. Bogle takes care in describing what "enough" is, and how we can follow his insight to use this understanding to live more fulfilling professional and personal lives (and be more responsible investors).
Another book I recommend because I've enjoyed it immensely and benefitted greatly from it as I adjust to our freefalling economy is The Emotional Intelligence Quick Book
Click here to see more reviews for: Enough
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The Snowball
Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
by Alice Schroeder (based on 81 customer reviews)
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(Hardcover)
Author: Alice Schroeder
Publisher: Bantam
Price: $21.00
You save: $14.00 (40%) off the list price!
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Most useful review as voted by customers:
153 out of 167 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 9/29/08
The New De Facto Buffett Biography
Alice Schroeder has done a wonderful job parsing the incredibly interesting and complex life of one of the world's true, living legends.
This should become the tome to site for all things Buffett. It is thorough, examining his family history, his father's career, and details of his youthful adventures; which in many instances, went well over the moral line he now teaches people to steer away from. The hardships suffered by close family members of the financial, psychological, and personal variety are honestly portrayed through the biography, as are details of the complex relationships he has had with women throughout his life.
For students of business and investment, the book details clearly the growth of his business knowledge early on and the success of his many investment partnerships. Alice details the countless problems he experienced once owning Berkshire Hathaway and the businesses that were later rolled in to create the present Berkshire. The details of his many acquisitions highlight his unique intelligence, as well as the intellect of his contemporaries, who in-fact were first to discover many of the corporate gems he acquired over the years. His collaboration with other investment managers proved vital to his success, contrary to much of what has been said elsewhere. Lastly, flaws are exposed in his investment acumen numerous times with regard to operations of target companies, and his early judgment in management teams. The very fact that he has been so successful, even given these errors, is testament to his unique abilities as a businessman.
The book highlights Buffett's amazing focus and zest for life. His relationships and personal experiences, which have never been exposed in any detail, have led to the unique character of Warren Buffett. His development into a great human being and quest to create something enduring in Berkshire, the Foundations, and his many "students", is wonderfully explained in this thoroughly enjoyable biography.
Click here to see more reviews for: The Snowball
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Raving Fans
A Revolutionary Approach To Customer Service
by Kenneth H. Blanchard (based on 123 customer reviews)
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(Hardcover)
Edition: 1
Author: Kenneth H. Blanchard
Publisher: William Morrow
Price: $15.61
You save: $7.34 (32%) off the list price!
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Most useful review as voted by customers:
64 out of 68 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 6/10/98
This book saved my company!
I've been a struggling small business owner (some 32 to 38 employees, depending upon the season) thinking my problem was either that I was undercapitalized or that I had hired the wrong people. Raving Fans was a wake up call. The problem was I wasn't creating raving fans. I was satisfied if my customers were satisfied, but I learned in this book that service is so bad that customers expectations are low. It's easy to satisfy low expectations and it doesn't mean very much. You have to create raving fans. Customers who tell others how wonderful you are. Today everyone in my company is focused on customers. Focused on creating stories our customers can tell others. Creating those magic moments the book calls giving symbolic hugs. Best of all Raving Fans gave me the road map to do it, all wrapped up in three easy lessons. This book may be simple, but it is also profound and by far the best customer service book I've ever read, and I guess the best business book too. I'd be out of business today if I hadn't adopted the strategy of creating raving fans and then getting everyone in the company to do the same. The result is we've stopped buring our customer list every six months. We're retaining old customers, adding new ones and sales are way up. Today Raving Fans is required reading for every new hire. Thanks Amazon for this opportunity to write this review. You're the best. I'm your RAVING FAN!Richard Anders
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The Subprime Solution
How Today's Global Financial Crisis Happened, and What to Do about It
by Robert J. Shiller (based on 17 customer reviews)
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(Hardcover)
Author: Robert J. Shiller
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Price: $11.53
You save: $5.42 (32%) off the list price!
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Most useful review as voted by customers:
5 out of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 8/27/08
3.5 stars-Shiller can't deal with uncertainty versus risk problem due to his allegiance to the SEU Rational actor model of
This could have been a major contribution to economic theory and history.Unfortunately,Shiller is unable to think outside the box of the basic neoclassical rational actor model of SEU(Subjective Expected Utility)theory ,and its extension in the form of the Tversky-Kahneman Prospect (Cumulative Prospect Theory )Theory that underlies the behavioral economics(finance)school of thought that has arisen since the late 1970's.Shiller makes it clear that he is an avid supporter of this school(Shiller,pp.117-120).SEU theory is actually a more advanced mathematical form of Jeremy Bentham's Benthamite Utilitarianism as expressed in his 1787 book, " Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation".Bentham,the founder of neoclassical economics, asserted that all rational,and even some irrational, human decision makers are able to accurately calculate the outcomes of their actions .However,he failed to present a method describing how such decisions were made.Modern neoclassical economics filled this gap by combining the Ramsey-de Finetti-Savage subjective theory of probability,based on the premise that all probability calculations are precise,exact,accurate,unique,linear,additive,single number calculations, based on the laws of addition and multiplication of the probability calculus,combined with the expected utility theory of Morgenstern and Von Neumann,which claimed that all utilities can be shown to also be exact,precise,linear,additive calculations.Neoclassical economist Herbert Gintis gives a good summary of the neoclassical SEU theory :"...the model can be shown to apply over any domain in which the agent has transitive preferences " so that " there is a probability pi subscript,0<=pi subscript<=1 such that the agent is indifferent between Ai subscript and a lottery that pays A1 subscript with probability pi subscript and pays An subscript with probability 1-pi subscript.Clearly,these assumptions are extremely plausible "(Gintis,2004,Politics,Philosophy,and Economics,3,p.40).Unfortunarely,this is not the case.Gintis has presented an abbreviated summary of Savage's sure thing postulate that both Keynes(A Treatise on Probability,1921,p.315,ft.2)and Ellsberg showed required that the decision maker would have to be able to specify a complete information set.Keynes expressed this by the condition that the weight of the evidence,w,equalled 1.Elleberg expressed it by the condition that there was no ambiguity in the information base so that his variable ,rho,equalled 1.This problem ,of a complete information base ,showed
up in the 20 year exchange between L Jonathan Cohen and Tversky and Kahneman ,carried out primarily in
the pages of Brain and Behavioral Science journal between 1974 and 1994,over the blue -green taxi cab problem.Tversky had to come up with a Keynes/Ellsberg like w or rho variable,that he called s for support,in order to counter Cohen's point that Tversky -Kahneman were claiming that the experimental subjects
were irrationally using heuristics and rules of thumb,instead of the mathematical laws that a rational decision maker would use,rather than recognizing that the experimental subjects realized that their information
base was incomplete so that w and rho were less than 1.In cases of uncertainty /ambiguity ,where w or rho are less than 1,it is irrational to attempt to use the mathematical laws of probability which only work if w or rho are equal to 1.This was exactly the same point made in 1931 by Keynes in his review of Ramsey's subjective theory of probability.SEU theory can only deal with situations of
risk(w=1,rho=1).
Shiller constantly refers to the need to better manage risk through the risk models used by modern financial mathematical models .These risk models all result in the use of some sort of normal probability distribution(joint normal,cumulative normal,bivariate normal,multivariate normal,log normal).Benoit Mandelbrot
has demonstrated continuously for 50 years that none of the time series data supports the use of any type of normal distribution.The data supports the use of the Cauchy,Frechet,or power law distributions like the Pareto.Mandelbrot has correctly demonstrated that decision makers face the wild risk of the Cauchy and not the mild risk of the Normal.All 6 of the solutions proposed by Shiller on p.122 and discussed in depth on pp.123-169 can't deal with Keynesian uncertainty or Ellsbergian ambiguity or Mandelbrotian wild risk.The only way to deal with the uncertainty and lack of confidence created by the speculative and securitization behavior of the large Wall Street investment banks and the commercial banking system is a preventitive one-Prevent the speculators from getting their hands on the bank loans that they need to leverage their debt position in the first place.Thisis the solution arrived at by both Keynes and Smith(See Smith,WN,1776,pp.339-340;Keynes,GT,1936,pp.321-327,338-353,and pp,374-377).There is only one reference to uncertainty in this book.Shiller puts uncertainty in italics on p.103:"Right after the 1929 crash,the forecasters,although they did not predict the depression that was to follow,expressed unusual uncertainty(uncertainty is in italics for emphasis)about the economic outlook.Romer believes that it was this uncertainty that led to the sharp contraction in consumer spending that ultimately caused the Depression ".(Shiller,p.103,2008).Unfortunately,none of his solutions,based on the standard neoclassical SEU
risk models,that are taught universally in all economics and finance classes where Shiller teaches,can deal with the collapse in investor and consumer confidence because confidence
is a function of Keynes's w,which is assumed to always equal 1 in the SEU theory.Keynes gave the correct solution on p.158 of the General Theory-"A collapse in the price of equities,which has had disasterous reactions on the marginal efficiency of capital may have been due to the weakening either of speculative confidence or of the stste of credit.But wheras the weakening of either is enough to cause a collapse,recovery requires the revival of both(Keynes placed " both"in italics for emphasis).For whilst the weakening of credit is sufficient to bring about collapse,its strenthening,though a necessary condition of recovery,is not a sufficient condition."(Keynes,p.158,1936).None of Bernanke's current policies or of Shiller's recommendations on risk management will have any impact on confidence.
Shiller's position,in this book and the others he has written,is that the problem is one of irrational exuberance combined with information cascades.
"An information cascade occurs when those in a group disregard their own independently,individually collected information because they feel thateveryone else simply couldn't be wrong.(Shiller,p.47).Keynes had already shown that the reason this occurs is that each individual regards his w to be very low.This means that you are now dealing with uncertainty and not risk.Risk management techniques,no matter how mathematically advanced,will not be able to deal with this problem.
Shiller has correctly identified the problems of financial speculation and securitization.Unfortunately,his new risk management techniques would have no more of a chance of dealing with the wild risk of the Cauchy Distribution than an ice cube would have of not melting in the Sahara Desert.An ounce of Keynesian/Smithian prevention is worth more than a pound of risk management techniques build on the standard deviation of a normal probability distribution." Excessive Volatility " automatically means you have to deal with uncertainty as opposed to risk.
Click here to see more reviews for: The Subprime Solution
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The Snowball
Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
by Alice Schroeder (based on 81 customer reviews)
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(Audio CD)
Edition: Abridged
Author: Alice Schroeder
Publisher: Random House Audio
Price: $26.40
You save: $13.60 (34%) off the list price!
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Most useful review as voted by customers:
153 out of 167 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 9/29/08
The New De Facto Buffett Biography
Alice Schroeder has done a wonderful job parsing the incredibly interesting and complex life of one of the world's true, living legends.
This should become the tome to site for all things Buffett. It is thorough, examining his family history, his father's career, and details of his youthful adventures; which in many instances, went well over the moral line he now teaches people to steer away from. The hardships suffered by close family members of the financial, psychological, and personal variety are honestly portrayed through the biography, as are details of the complex relationships he has had with women throughout his life.
For students of business and investment, the book details clearly the growth of his business knowledge early on and the success of his many investment partnerships. Alice details the countless problems he experienced once owning Berkshire Hathaway and the businesses that were later rolled in to create the present Berkshire. The details of his many acquisitions highlight his unique intelligence, as well as the intellect of his contemporaries, who in-fact were first to discover many of the corporate gems he acquired over the years. His collaboration with other investment managers proved vital to his success, contrary to much of what has been said elsewhere. Lastly, flaws are exposed in his investment acumen numerous times with regard to operations of target companies, and his early judgment in management teams. The very fact that he has been so successful, even given these errors, is testament to his unique abilities as a businessman.
The book highlights Buffett's amazing focus and zest for life. His relationships and personal experiences, which have never been exposed in any detail, have led to the unique character of Warren Buffett. His development into a great human being and quest to create something enduring in Berkshire, the Foundations, and his many "students", is wonderfully explained in this thoroughly enjoyable biography.
Click here to see more reviews for: The Snowball
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The Creature from Jekyll Island
A Second Look at the Federal Reserve
by G. Edward Griffin (based on 183 customer reviews)
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(Paperback)
Edition: 4th
Author: G. Edward Griffin
Publisher: Amer Media
Price: $24.50
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Most useful review as voted by customers:
202 out of 208 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 7/30/01
Scary
G. Edward Griffin is to be commended for this splendid work. At first glance The Creature from Jekyll Island is a huge book. While this may be daunting to some, once the book is actually started, it flows smoothly and reads quickly. There are so many fascinating tidbits of information here that the reader won't even be concerned about the size of the book. The title refers to the formation of the Federal Reserve System, which occurred at a secret meeting at Jekyll Island, Georgia in 1910. It was at this meeting, as Griffin relates, that the "Money Trust", composed of the richest and most powerful bankers in the world, along with a U.S. Senator, wrote the proposal to launch the Federal Reserve System (which Griffin calls a banking cartel) to control the financial system so that the bankers will always come out on top.While Griffin starts with this event, he quickly moves into the present day to detail several financial crises that resulted in a quick government intervention at the behest of the bankers from the Fed, who told all who would listen that if the government (read: taxpayers) didn't bail out the banks that had made bad loans, it could cause the entire system to collapse. Massive loan defaults; bank runs, and a major economic depression would manifest this collapse. Griffin shows how time and time again the taxpayer is bilked so that bankers can make billions in profits off of these financial scares. Griffin also shows how the supposed safeguards against these woes, such as the FSLIC, are scams to reassure the average person that their banks are safe. In actuality, these insurances against bank closures are so inadequate that there isn't enough money to even come close to paying off investors in case of a collapse.
The biggest problem in modern banking, according to Griffin, is and has always been the creation of fiat money. Fiat money is money that is "declared" money by the government. It is not backed by anything but promises and deceit. All societies were sound financially when they used gold or silver to back their currency. When the bankers finally get their way and install fiat money, the result is inflation and boom and bust cycles. Griffin gives numerous examples of this, such as repeated failures by American colonies and European states in using fiat money. The purpose of fiat money is so that the government can spend more then they take in through taxes.
Without writing reams on this book, it is sufficient to say that this is a must read for anyone who is interested in learning how the money system operates. Griffin gives comprehensive accounts of how the Fed creates money, and how this affects everyday life. I would have to say these sections are better than Murray Rothbard's book, The Case Against the Fed, because Griffin gives himself more room for explanation.
Griffin does believe in the conspiratorial view of history, and he believes that the bankers are working in concert with such groups as the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission to bring about a socialist-world system in which an elite composed of intellectuals and bankers will rule over the entire planet. Griffin even spends a chapter outlining how this system could come about, and the consequent results of this socialist system. These chapters are a bit unsettling, but even if you aren't interested in this worldview, you can still learn much about the economy from this book. Recommended
Click here to see more reviews for: The Creature from Jekyll Island
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Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements
The Search for the Company with a Durable Competitive Advantage
by Mary Buffett (based on 27 customer reviews)
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(Hardcover)
Author: Mary Buffett
Publisher: Scribner
Price: $16.47
You save: $8.48 (34%) off the list price!
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Most useful review as voted by customers:
18 out of 19 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 10/15/08
Great for the beginning to intermediate investor!
If you have an underlined copy of Security Analysis (Ben Graham's 700 page treatise on value investing) sitting on your desk or you are a professional money manager you may or may not find this book interesting. But if you are a beginner to intermediate investor who is interested in getting a quick basic course in how to read financial statements from a Warren Buffett perspective it is the perfect book.
I'm a professional with $500 million under management and I got a couple of good ideas out of it. But at this stage of my career getting a couple of good ideas on how to make more money is just fine with me. It only takes a couple of great ideas to get rich and even fewer to stay rich. Their book the New Buffettology, which was published in 2002, is aimed more at the professional investor and many people in the investment business use it. But I would say this book is for that beginning to intermediate group that really are a little in the dark about what to look for in a company's financial statements. And it focuses on what to look for if you are like Buffett and looking for a company with a Durable Competitive Advantage. Also it is a quick and easy read - unlike Graham's Security Analysis which most people buy but never read - try reading 700 pages on how to read a financial statement and see how far you get before you nod off with boredom. Quick and easy can be a good thing for great many investors.
Am I glad I bought it? Yes. Would I recommend it to my friends that aren't professionals? Yes. Would I recommend it to professionals? Yes, but don't expect to get more than a few good ideas out of it.
Click here to see more reviews for: Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements
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The New Paradigm for Financial Markets
The Credit Crash of 2008 and What It Means
by George Soros (based on 56 customer reviews)
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(Hardcover)
Author: George Soros
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Price: $15.61
You save: $7.34 (32%) off the list price!
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Most useful review as voted by customers:
163 out of 211 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 4/5/08
Hmmm...
About the previous review, I find it interesting that you say the subprime issue is: "a situation that has perplexed all economists" and then you proceed to give your own solution at the end of what you wrote. Are you saying that you alone have the solution to something that has "perplexed all economists?" Sounds deserving of a Nobel in Economics if true...ahem. Not all economists are "perplexed" by the issue...they merely speak in technical terms so most people don't understand the gravity of what they are saying. They have known of this issue for a long time. In fact, Bernanke wrote a book on what he is about to do with interest rates. It is called "Inflation Targeting." He will seek to maintain a certain "core inflation rate." Note that *food* and *fuel* are NOT included in the "core rate." They are part of what he is calling "headline inflation." The FED will not react to changes in food and fuel (headline) inflation directly...only after they have affected the "core inflation rate." This lag in control will likely create oscillations in the system. Great for stock traders, but tough for the average person with a life. The FED will have tough times politically.
Further, you say that it has "instilled fear in anybody who wasn't vacationing in the space station in the last year." Those in the know have understood the problems with these policies for a long time. If you have understood this for only a year, then you are quite late to the party and have forgotten that Soros fought hard during the last election for a change in policies. Buffett spoke out against derivatives long ago. Jim Rogers (co-founder of Quantum Fund with Soros) wrote about the commodities boom in 2004 in his book "Hot Commodities." Implicit in the view that commodities will boom is the view that there will be hyper-inflation, since everything is made of commodities and the hyper-inflated prices will be passed along or the companies will go out of business. Greenspan also alluded to hyper-inflation in his book.
Well, I won't address all the fallacies in your argument, since they are myriad. I will simply let the salient ones I have addressed stand. (Um...By the way, "penultimate" means one less than "ultimate." It does not mean greater than ultimate. There is only one word for "ultimate"...and "ultimate" is it.)
Anyway, Soros is an expert in this field and has been quite prescient on this topic for years. Following advice such as his (as well as that of Rodgers, Buffett, Graham, and other notables) has permitted me to position my portfolio defensively for these times. I started years ago (hence my knowledge of what was known more than a year ago.) I sold my home at the peak of housing and bought a home in an area that did not have the same unrealistic home inflation. The remaining cashed-out home equity was invested in other defensive things. My home value has not fallen nearly as much as it would have had I kept my other home, thanks to Mr. Soros' foresight. I look forward to what he has to say about the coming financial winds so I can plot my next step in capital preservation/expansion.
Don't judge the book based on theoretical criticisms. Look at the reality of the track record of the man himself. Also, consider the fundamental fact that most "bubbles" occur because of over leveraging and greed. Years ago there was the LBO bust and today, we have a bust from over leveraged banks and improperly leveraged homeowners. I say "improperly" because the way those contracts were written practically assures a bust...prepayment penalties that are really refinance penalties, interest rates dependent on LIBOR (London Inter-Bank Offerring Rate) instead of US rates, etc.
In short, if the FED can't use its tools to avoid the foreclosures, it will cause a depression in the housing market. In fact, the housing market is already in depression by definition. That is, interest rate changes cannot be used to avoid the harm...therefore, severe price deflation (i.e., "depression") and job losses result. Since 78% of the US economy is housing related (e.g., furniture sales, appliance sales, insurance, lawn care, carpeting, mortgage banking, etc.) the situation is clearly serious.
Now...all of this has a deeper level. There is a larger case of over-leveraging that is starting to unwind right as you read this review: The National Debt. Yes, deficits *do* matter. They are obligated taxes...with interest. The payment of the trillion dollar national debt will be painful and require a type of tax that noone voted for: Inflation. Why? Well, how is one going to get people to vote for a tax to pay off the debt when they were already voting against the taxes they already had? The only solution is an involuntary, hidden tax: Inflation. Over time, Inflation makes debts look smaller and more managable. The hidden inflation tax is *already* here because of the current interest rate cuts and will grow to a size people haven't yet imagined. Buy gold, oil, or any other commodity. This will be about a ten year cycle, overall, so inflation has a long time to run.
Since inflation has already started, it will be difficult to stop. Like a fire, it will continue to burn until susceptible assets are destroyed. The remaining assets will be helped by it though.
Buffett warned of this years ago. He recently said that more and more deficit spending and rate cuts would eventually make the dollar "worthless" (a statement he later "corrected" under some pressure to "worth less".) Anyway, the situation is serious. Don't trust any particular review of the book...not even this one. Look at the book yourself and make your OWN judgement regarding Soros' acumen.
Click here to see more reviews for: The New Paradigm for Financial Markets
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