Aftershock Book Review
Aftershock: Protect Yourself and Profit in the Next Global Financial Meltdown is not your typical ITEOTWAWKI kind of book.
FYI, I’m not a permabear. In fact, I’m naturally an optimist and have discounted the bullish potential of gold and bearish potential of the USD until recently, when I started understanding the fundamentals at work that are going to devalue our currency.
I REALLY like the book and agree with many but not all of the premises and conclusions of the authors.
THINGS I AGREE WITH
- The recent real estate boom was a bubble that has not yet completely deflated. The time to buy real estate as an investment is not here yet.
- Stocks are currently in a bubble that have not yet deflated to reasonable levels. There is either a major crash or a consistent bear market ahead…or both.
- China is a HUGE bubble that will deflate BIG TIME soon…it is already starting.
- The dollar is deflating in value and will continue to do so. The European economy is not in a whole lot better shape, but the Euro, due to supply and demand, will increase a lot vs. the dollar.
- The government debt situation is the most gargantuan bubble of all, and when it gets popped, the economy will be “reset” a long way down from where we’re at right now.
- All of the above bubbles will drive people toward gold…myself included. However, the fundamental forces at play will also create a gold bubble that will at some point pop.
THINGS I DISAGREE WITH
- The authors seem to have respect for Keynesian economic philosophies, and I do not. I believe the people are the source of wealth, and government cannot efficiently manage it or create it. They can only destroy it. They may at times succeed in distorting the markets to pick winners and losers, but it will usually end badly.
- The authors give no moral blame to government for causing the above bubbles, yet all of them are due to government intervention in the economy, IMO.
- The authors like FDR. I find it unbelievable that anyone with any historical knowledge whatsoever can like FDR.
- The authors take a nonchalant view of our supposed predestined “evolution” toward an international currency managed by an international equivalent of the Federal Reserve. They suggest that this is a given, that there’s nothing we can do to avoid it…nor should we. I totally disagree. I believe our national sovereignty is crucial to surviving the collapse of the dollar and the global economy in general.
We will not get out of this by joining hands and singing Kum Bay Ya under a world government. That will only serve to put the socialists/Marxists/internationalists/globalists in charge who caused the problem in the first place.
Brighter days ahead
America does have brighter days ahead but we will not get out of this mess until we decide to compete once again to earn foreign investment in our economy.
Please, if you value your life savings, read Aftershock.
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