America's Financial Apocalypse: How to Profit from the Next Great Depression, Condensed Edition

By Stathis

Book Overview

The American standard of living has been in decline for more than two decades, with the middle class having been affected the most. The generation responsible for creating the greatest bull market in... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0975577670
• ISBN13: 9780975577677
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: Apex Venture Advisors
• Length: 242 Pages
• Weight: 0.97 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 0.8" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

More Harrowing Than Reading Chomsky........

This book really exposes the dark side of American government and corporate craftiness. This is the stuff they don't want the masses to know, so don't expect it to be high on anybody's best seller list. The standard corporate media outlets will suppress this book to death, probably by just ignoring it. By reading AFA, one will obtain a clearer picture how the rich get richer at the expense of the sheep.The tone is serious, clear, to the point and makes one reconsider if America is really the greatest country on earth. Post-read, it makes one feel like moving to Canada or Singapore. I found AFA to be a better read than Crashproof, though both are required reading. My main complaint with AFA is it did not offer more specific investment advice for regular-Joe investors. I look forward to updated editions addressing this.

A Real Wake Up Call

The author makes an indisputable case for America's decline, some of which has already occurred with remarkable accuracy. The larger, more detailed, original edition was written in 2006, well before there were any apparent problems with real estate. Yet, he predicted a fall out in not only housing, but also expected the banking system to suffer huge losses. Perhaps the most valuable aspect of this book is that the author explains the real estate correction is only the first of many stages that will push America further into decline. To conclude, I have seen no book like this. It is comprehensive, well-researched and written and provides excellent guidance for both the novice and the professional investor. I especially like the fact that, unlike other books, the author has since left Wall Street and no longer manages money, so he doesn't have any vested interests or biases. He doesn't sell gold coins or have a brokerage shop. That means doesn't stand to gain from the conclusions he presents other than positioning himself as America's leading investment expert. And he has, in my opinion achieved this. With everyone on Wall Street, the Fed, the media and the so-called experts missing everything, I find it unfortunate that the author has not been the media's go-to guy to alert investors of the apocalypse. Maybe they fear the truth.

The Most Relevant and Timely Investment Book in a Decade

Like the previos reviewer, I too have read hundreds of investment books. But this one stands out for many reasons. Here's why. Most of these books are written to make you feel good while short-changing you on substance. This book tells it like it is and offers valuable investment guidance. Other similar books that have received much more publicity, but this book is far superior because is has been written with much more insight and data. In addition, unlike any other book dealing with the current economic conditions, this one makes credible predictions over a 20-year period. Lastly, the author does an excellent job discussing the problems with America's core programs and industries (healthcare, oil, Social Security, pension and retirement issues, free trade, political leadership). It does a great job explaining these topics. For these reasons, this book stands alone as a one-of-a-kind, with no real comparable. While the authorative writing style is at times a bit dry, the information and insight easily overshadows this. The author does not merely tell you to buy gold and oil, TIPS, etc. He provides detailed rational for each strategy. Anyone who has not been in these asset classes has missed tremendous gains. I especially like the fact that the author no longer works on Wall Street so he can be trusted since he has no biases. This is in contrast to other authors who write about gold and try to steer you to their company that sells gold coins, or authors who write books to advertise their funds or brokerage companies. I end up giving away most investment books I buy after a first read, but I will keep this one for many years. I have no doubt this book will be as valuable to me in ten years as it has been now. For whatever it's worth, I work on Wall Street.

The Best on America's Current and Future Problems

After having read about every single book on the economy, this one is the absolute best. I've read them all: Crash Proof, Second Great Depression, Financial Armagedon, Second Depression, etc. In all I have read about 23 books. I am not sure why this book has not gotten the publicity the others have. I guess the publisher didn't pay for publicity. Regardless, that's great news for me and anyone who reads this book because it is an absolute gem. The fewer people who get ahold of it the better for me! Rather than focus the entire book on the real estate and credit bubble, the author does a wonderful job of tieing in many other critical topics, such as health care, Social Security, free trade, illegal immigration, peak oil, debt, and many other subjects. Perhaps the only thing more impressive than his expertise in these topics is how he ties them into each other and presents a difficult case to argue against America's coming depression. This book was made based on the original, released in 2006 and is much easiler to get through, although I loved the massive coverage in the first. I will keep both forever since they have helped me do extremely well in my investments. I am counting on them to help me in the future as well. Let me summarize the main investment material. Basically, the author predicts that inflation, rather than deflation will be a huge problem, oil will continue to rise, as well as gold. I particularly like how he seperates investment periods into two sections. First, he emphasizes that the 2001-2012 period will be typical of post-bubble corrections. He states that the market will return an average of about 2% annually over that period. But those are going to be the better years. Thereafter, as peak oil is reached and baby boomers retire, the declining economics will set in and cause a depression. Throughout both periods, he expects gold, oilt trusts, Treasury Inflation-Protected securities, foreign currencies to do quite well. And of course it will be important to have cash for opportunities. The book was written in a kind of matter of fact, very authoratative style, almost technical. Any way you slice it, the book is very valuable for any type of investor. Advanced (including professionals) might like the non-condensed edition better if they don't mind spending a month to read it. You can easily get through the condensed edition in about 2-3 days.

This Book Really Delivers

Unlike other books that talk about a problem for America in the coming years, this one does not focus on one or two problems but presents all of the major problems America is facing from economic, social and global political issues, to all of the financial issues. Rather than focusing on America's national debt as a primary issue, the author realizes that no one problem is strong enough to take down the greatest nation on earth. Instead, he discusses the two biggest problems in America--the healthcare crisis and free trade, which have accelerated America's declining competitiveness. He also explains the misconceptions of the state of Social Security, the global oil shortage, continued presence in Iraq and growing tensions in the middle east, the real estate bubble, the pension problems and many more topics; all of this in addition to the growing record national debt and trade deficits. And he relates all of this together to the Baby Boomers. He also makes very reasonable but adverse predictions for the dollar, long-term interest rates, and explains why America has a major economic correction that is inevitable. He points out well that we never recovered from the recession thought to have ended in 2001-2002, and Americans have been using credit to fuel the economy. The author goes at lengths to prove this and he even illustrates how the most critical economic numbers such as GDP and inflation have been manipulated by the government. Even if this book did nothing more than to point out these issues, it would be a great achievement. But the author goes further to predict a major depression and he pays out very rational low-risk recommendations for investments. This is easily the most comprehensive book on America's problems as they relate to economics and investments (other than the much larger unabridged edition). I could see this book being useful for everyone--working Americans, activists, politicians, economists, and citizens concerned about America's future, as well as investors at all levels. It is truly a critical read.