Review
“This book is an intellectual tour de force.” (GetAbstract.com)

“…a very level-headed book for adventurous readers.” (Accounting Technician, May 2004)

This worthwhile, well-organized book presents insights into the current U.S. economy by comparing contemporary economic events with historical ones, especially such systems as Japan's in the 1990s and the United States in the 1930s. Find out why high-spending, high-borrowing consumerism leveraged the U.S. economy and also what the "soft depression" means for investors. (Best Business Books 2003, Library Journal, March 15, 2004)

"...The authors...come up with some disturbing conclusions..." (The Journal, Newcastle, 5 February 2004)

"...every serious investor should read this book..." (www.iii.co.uk (AMPLE), 6 January 2004)

"...the book has rattled me enough to prompt further inquiry." (The Telegraph, 13 December 2004)


Review
“This book is an intellectual tour de force.” (GetAbstract.com)

“…a very level-headed book for adventurous readers.” (Accounting Technician, May 2004)

"...The authors...come up with some disturbing conclusions..." (The Journal, Newcastle, 5 February 2004)

"...every serious investor should read this book..." (www.iii.co.uk (AMPLE), 6 January 2004)

"...the book has rattled me enough to prompt further inquiry." (The Telegraph, 13 December 2004)


The Telegraph, 13 December 2004
"...the book has rattled me enough to prompt further inquiry."


The Telegraph, 13 December 2004
"...the book has rattled me enough to prompt further inquiry."


The Journal, Newcastle, 5 February 2004
"...The authors...come up with some disturbing conclusions..."


The Telegraph, 13 December 2004
"...the book has rattled me enough to prompt further inquiry."


Book Description
"History shows that people who save and invest grow and prosper, and the others deteriorate and collapse.
"As Financial Reckoning Day demonstrates, artificially low interest rates and rapid credit creation policies set by Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve caused the bubble in U.S. stocks of the late '90s. . . . Now, policies being pursued at the Fed are making the bubble worse. They are changing it from a stock market bubble to a consumption and housing bubble.
"And when those bubbles burst, it's going to be worse than the stock market bubble . . .
"No one, of course, wants to hear it. They want the quick fix. They want to buy the stock and watch it go up twenty-five percent because that's what happened last year, and that's what they say on TV."
--Jim Rogers
author of the bestseller Adventure Capitalist
from the Foreword to Financial Reckoning Day
Advanced praise from bestselling authors
"An investment book that will not only enlarge your investment horizon, but also make you laugh and thoroughly entertain you for a few hours."
--Dr. Marc Faber, author of the bestseller Tomorrow's Gold
"Financial Reckoning Day is . . . in the category of scintillating sex or good vision, something to be savored and enjoyed-before it is too late."
--James Dale Davidson
author of the bestseller The Great Reckoning and The Sovereign Individual
"A powerful and insightful vision . . . each paragraph stimulates a new rush of thoughts that fills in gaping holes in the investor's understanding of what has happened to their dreams . . . while prepping them to confront any new confusion that may arrive."
--Martin D. Weiss, author of the bestseller Crash Profits


Download Description
The investor’s guide to surviving a slowing economy Financial Reckoning Day is a "big picture" investment book that skillfully illustrates how the American economy is following in the footsteps of the Japanese economy, which fell into a long, soft "slow motion" deflationary depression brought about by two irresistible forces–its aging population and a structural reaction to the greatest financial boom in its history. With the U.S. market in a downturn, investors are looking for answers to why this is happening and what they can do to protect their investments. Financial Reckoning Day will provide the answers to those questions. Written by a team of well-respected financial professionals–whose publications and newsletters reach a quarter million investors each week–this book shows readers how the economic megaboom of the 1990s will inevitably be followed by a megabust in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Many believe that depressions are artifacts of financial history, not features of the future. Financial Reckoning Day shows why these events are a real possibility and discusses the dangers they pose to investors around the world, arguing that popular democracy, aging populations, and bad economic theories doom Western economics to bear markets, and falling consumer spending for years to come. More importantly, it shows readers how they can survive and thrive during such events. William Bonner is President and CEO of Agora Publishing, one of the largest financial newsletters published in the world. Bonner is the creator of the Daily Reckoning, a contrarian financial newsletter. There are now more than 450,000 readers and the newsletter has received praise from numerous publications including Money and Worth magazines. Addison Wiggin is Managing Editor for the Daily Reckoning financial newsletter.


Book Info
Text highlights the surges and slides of history, emphasizing the powerful relevance of these events to today's economic uncertainties. DLC: Financial crises--United States.


From the Inside Flap
Is the U.S. economy turning Japanese? According to maverick investment writers Bill Bonner and Addison Wiggin, the country’s current economic picture mirrors that of Japan’s decade-old "soft depression"–caused by an aging population and a structural reaction to its record-breaking financial boom. As the U.S. downturn drags on, investors want to know what’s behind it all, what’s in store, and what they can do to safeguard their investments. Financial Reckoning Day: Surviving the Soft Depression of the 21st Century helps you chart your own financial destiny in today’s precarious investing climate. Irreverent and eye-opening, this "big picture" investment book starts with a simple premise: history shows us that investing has less to do with raw economic data and new statistics–the domain of most other investment books–and more to do with old rules, metaphors, and experience. Putting this unique metaphorical focus (and its underlying principles) into action, Financial Reckoning Day draws upon military and sociopolitical milestones to highlight the surges and slides of history. Going a step further, the authors emphasize the powerful relevance of these events to today’s economic uncertainties. Brimming with down-to-earth wisdom and take-it-to-heart lessons, Financial Reckoning Day tells you: Why the "Information Age" stock boom went bust, with sobering insights into such companies as , Cisco Systems, and Global Crossing Why high-spending, high-borrowing consumerism "leveraged" the U.S. economy and what you might expect from the "soft, slow depression" in the decade ahead Why Japan’s "miracle economy" unexpectedly collapsed and why a decade of monetary stimulus has failed to revive it How the Civil War–and the financing of wars in general–led to the creation of the central banking system What the legacy of Fed chief Alan Greenspan "ought" to be How the speculative mania for John Law’s Compagnie des Indes in the early eighteenth century presaged the dot.com stock craze How the "Aging of the West" is more likely to affect stock prices in the years to come than fiscal policy As it reveals the hazards of democratic consumer capitalism and the financial follies of history, Financial Reckoning Day warns that depressions are not necessarily a thing of the past. And that’s why it’s so vital to have an essential, wide-angle resource like this on hand . . . to get you through the current crunch–and put profits back in your portfolio.


From the Back Cover
"History shows that people who save and invest grow and prosper, and the others deteriorate and collapse. "As Financial Reckoning Day demonstrates, artificially low interest rates and rapid credit creation policies set by Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve caused the bubble in U.S. stocks of the late ’90s. . . . Now, policies being pursued at the Fed are making the bubble worse. They are changing it from a stock market bubble to a consumption and housing bubble. "And when those bubbles burst, it’s going to be worse than the stock market bubble . . . "No one, of course, wants to hear it. They want the quick fix. They want to buy the stock and watch it go up twenty-five percent because that’s what happened last year, and that’s what they say on TV." --Jim Rogers author of the bestseller Adventure Capitalist from the Foreword to Financial Reckoning Day Advanced praise from bestselling authors "An investment book that will not only enlarge your investment horizon, but also make you laugh and thoroughly entertain you for a few hours." --Dr. Marc Faber, author of the bestseller Tomorrow’s Gold "Financial Reckoning Day is . . . in the category of scintillating sex or good vision, something to be savored and enjoyed--before it is too late." --James Dale Davidson author of the bestseller The Great Reckoning and The Sovereign Individual "A powerful and insightful vision . . . each paragraph stimulates a new rush of thoughts that fills in gaping holes in the investor’s understanding of what has happened to their dreams . . . while prepping them to confront any new confusion that may arrive." --Martin D. Weiss, author of the bestseller Crash Profits


About the Author
WILLIAM BONNER is President and CEO of Agora Publishing, one of the largest financial newsletter companies. Headquartered in Baltimore, Agora now has offices overseas in London, Paris, Ireland, Bonn, and Johannesburg. Mr. Bonner is also the creator of the Daily Reckoning, a contrarian financial newsletter sent via e-mail (www.dailyreckoning.com). The newsletter now has more than 500,000 readers in the United States and Great Britain and is translated daily into German and French. It has received praise from mainstream publications, including Money.

ADDISON WIGGIN is the Managing Editor for the Daily Reckoning. A contributor to Strategic Investment, Mr. Wiggin is also the author of the Daily Reckoning Weekend Edition (www.dailyreckoning.com), a weekly wrap-up of contrarian investment analysis. Before joining the team, he served at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., and earned his master’s in philosophy from St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Is the U.S. economy turning Japanese?

According to maverick investment writers Bill Bonner and Addison Wiggin, the country’s current economic picture mirrors that of Japan’s decade-old "soft depression"—caused by an aging population and a structural reaction to its record-breaking financial boom.

As the U.S. downturn drags on, investors want to know what’s behind it all, what’s in store, and what they can do to safeguard their investments. Financial Reckoning Day: Surviving the Soft Depression of the 21st Century helps you chart your own financial destiny in today’s precarious investing climate. Irreverent and eye-opening, this "big picture" investment book starts with a simple premise: history shows us that investing has less to do with raw economic data and new statistics—the domain of most other investment books—and more to do with old rules, metaphors, and experience.

Putting this unique metaphorical focus (and its underlying principles) into action, Financial Reckoning Day draws upon military and sociopolitical milestones to highlight the surges and slides of history. Going a step further, the authors emphasize the powerful relevance of these events to today’s economic uncertainties.

Brimming with down-to-earth wisdom and take-it-to-heart lessons, Financial Reckoning Day tells you: Why the "Information Age" stock boom went bust, with sobering insights into such companies as Amazon.com, Cisco Systems, and Global Crossing Why high-spending, high-borrowing consumerism "leveraged" the U.S. economy and what you might expect from the "soft, slow depression" in the decade ahead Why Japan’s "miracle economy" unexpectedly collapsed and why a decade of monetary stimulus has failed to revive it How the Civil War—and the financing of wars in general—led to the creation of the central banking system What the legacy of Fed chief Alan Greenspan "ought" to be How the speculative mania for John Law’s Compagnie des Indes in the early eighteenth century presaged the dot.com stock craze How the "Aging of the West" is more likely to affect stock prices in the years to come than fiscal policy

As it reveals the hazards of democratic consumer capitalism and the financial follies of history, Financial Reckoning Day warns that depressions are not necessarily a thing of the past. And that’s why it’s so vital to have an essential, wide-angle resource like this on hand . . . to get you through the current crunch—and put profits back in your portfolio.

"History shows that people who save and invest grow and prosper, and the others deteriorate and collapse. "As Financial Reckoning Day demonstrates, artificially low interest rates and rapid credit creation policies set by Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve caused the bubble in U.S. stocks of the late ’90s. . . . Now, policies being pursued at the Fed are making the bubble worse. They are changing it from a stock market bubble to a consumption and housing bubble. "And when those bubbles burst, it’s going to be worse than the stock market bubble . . . "No one, of course, wants to hear it. They want the quick fix. They want to buy the stock and watch it go up twenty-five percent because that’s what happened last year, and that’s what they say on TV." —Jim Rogers author of the bestseller Adventure Capitalist from the Foreword to Financial Reckoning Day

Advanced praise from bestselling authors

"An investment book that will not only enlarge your investment horizon, but also make you laugh and thoroughly entertain you for a few hours." —Dr. Marc Faber, author of the bestseller Tomorrow’s Gold

"Financial Reckoning Day is . . . in the category of scintillating sex or good vision, something to be savored and enjoyed—before it is too late." —James Dale Davidson author of the bestseller The Great Reckoning and The Sovereign Individual

"A powerful and insightful vision . . . each paragraph stimulates a new rush of thoughts that fills in gaping holes in the investor’s understanding of what has happened to their dreams . . . while prepping them to confront any new confusion that may arrive." —Martin D. Weiss, author of the bestseller Crash Profits

Author Biography: WILLIAM BONNER is President and CEO of Agora Publishing, one of the largest financial newsletter companies. Headquartered in Baltimore, Agora now has offices overseas in London, Paris, Ireland, Bonn, and Johannesburg. Mr. Bonner is also the creator of the Daily Reckoning, a contrarian financial newsletter sent via e-mail (dailyreckoning.com). The newsletter now has more than 500,000 readers in the United States and Great Britain and is translated daily into German and French. It has received praise from mainstream publications, including Money.