Purchase
The Making of the Next Global Crisis
Portfolio
November 2011
On Sale: November 10, 2011
256 pages ISBN: 1591844495 EAN: 9781591844495 Kindle: B005GSYZRA Hardcover / e-Book
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction
In 1971, President Nixon imposed national price controls and
took the United States off the gold standard, an extreme
measure intended to end an ongoing currency war that had
destroyed faith in the U.S. dollar. Today we are engaged in
a new currency war, and this time the consequences will be
far worse than those that confronted Nixon. Currency wars are one of the most destructive and feared
outcomes in international economics. At best, they offer the
sorry spectacle of countries' stealing growth from their
trading partners. At worst, they degenerate into sequential
bouts of inflation, recession, retaliation, and sometimes
actual violence. Left unchecked, the next currency war could
lead to a crisis worse than the panic of 2008. Currency wars have happened before-twice in the last century
alone-and they always end badly. Time and again, paper
currencies have collapsed, assets have been frozen, gold has
been confiscated, and capital controls have been imposed.
And the next crash is overdue. Recent headlines about the
debasement of the dollar, bailouts in Greece and Ireland,
and Chinese currency manipulation are all indicators of the
growing conflict. As James Rickards argues in Currency Wars, this is
more than just a concern for economists and investors. The
United States is facing serious threats to its national
security, from clandestine gold purchases by China to the
hidden agendas of sovereign wealth funds. Greater than any
single threat is the very real danger of the collapse of the
dollar itself. Baffling to many observers is the rank failure of economists
to foresee or prevent the economic catastrophes of recent
years. Not only have their theories failed to prevent
calamity, they are making the currency wars worse. The U. S.
Federal Reserve has engaged in the greatest gamble in the
history of finance, a sustained effort to stimulate the
economy by printing money on a trillion-dollar scale. Its
solutions present hidden new dangers while resolving none of
the current dilemmas. While the outcome of the new currency war is not yet
certain, some version of the worst-case scenario is almost
inevitable if U.S. and world economic leaders fail to learn
from the mistakes of their predecessors. Rickards untangles
the web of failed paradigms, wishful thinking, and arrogance
driving current public policy and points the way toward a
more informed and effective course of action.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
|