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PRAISE FOR EMPIRE OF DEBT
--Post-Pandemic Edition--
"Watching the news is a bit like watching a bad opera. You can tell from all the shrieking that something very important is supposed to be happening, but you don't quite know what it is. What you're missing is the plot.
Let us begin by noticing that this is a comic opera that seems as though it might veer into tragedy at any moment. The characters on stage are familiar to us--economists, politicians, investors, consumers, and businesspeople. They are the same hustlers, clowns, rubes, and dumbbells we always see. But in today's performance they are doing something extraordinary: They are some of the richest people on the planet, but they have come to rely on the savings of the world's poorest... They routinely spend more than they make--and think they can continue doing so indefinitely... They invade foreign countries believing they are spreading freedom... They run trillion-dollar deficits, routinely, giving almost no thought to who will pay... or how."
- From the Introduction to Empire of Debt
"Empire of Debt is a wake-up call for all investors. Bonner and Wiggin masterfully illustrate why we should all take a much closer look at what our future holds." - Marketwatch
"The authors describe with sardonic humor--and no small amount of name calling--how America has become an overfed, imperial has-been and economic basket case." - SmartMoney.com
"In addition to being accomplished financial analysts, Bonner and Wiggin are talented historical writers. And they put this talent to work in the cause of examining the political and economic effects of empire." - The Huffington Post
List of contents
INTRODUCTION: The Bubble Empire, Redux 1
PART I IMPERIA ABSURDUM 21 CHAPTER 1: Dead Men Talking 23
CHAPTER 2: Empires of Dirt 43
CHAPTER 3: How Empires Work 59
CHAPTER 4: As We Go Marching 87
PART II DEAD PRESIDENTS 99 CHAPTER 5: The Road to Hell 101
CHAPTER 6: A Great Depression 141
CHAPTER 7: McNamara's War 163
CHAPTER 8: Tricky Dick 191
PART III EVENING IN AMERICA 203 CHAPTER 9: American Money 205
CHAPTER 10: The Empire of Debt 237
CHAPTER 11: Modern Imperial Finance 263
CHAPTER 12: Something Wicked This Way Comes 281
PART IV FIN DE BUBBLE 295 CHAPTER 13: Welcome to Squanderville 297
CHAPTER 14: Kingdoms Are of Clay 317
CHAPTER 15: Turning Argentine 357
CHAPTER 16: Gray Swans 389
Notes 419
Index 439
About the author
William Bonner is the bestselling author or coauthor of numerous books, including
Financial Reckoning Day,
Empire of Debt,
Mobs, Messiahs and Markets,
Hormegeddon,
Dice Have No Memory, and
The Idea of America. Mr. Bonner is the author of the classic
Un-Civilizing America: How Win-Win Deals Make Us Better and shares his investment insights daily in a missive for Bonner Private Research found on Substack. He is the founder of the worldwide research network, The Agora, and an avid stone mason.
Addison Wiggin has been an executive publisher within The Agora for over two decades. He is the coauthor with Mr. Bonner of
Financial Reckoning Day and
Empire of Debt. Mr. Wiggin is the author of the bestseller
Demise of the Dollar and writer and executive producer of the feature-length documentary
I.O.U.S.A. which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Addison is the international director of
The Gray Swan Investment Fraternity.
Summary
Protect your investments with a deep dive into the past and future of finance
Building on the uncannily accurate predictions in previous editions, this latest edition of The Empire of Debt: We Came, We Saw, We Borrowed, written by New York Times bestselling authors Addison Wiggin and Bill Bonner, explores the economic, political, and financial events between 2008-09 and 2023, placing them in historical context and explaining what's likely to happen for the remaining years of the 2020s.
The book imparts practical advice on how to protect wealth in the face of ongoing and rapidly intensifying crises, as well as suggestions on how these trends can be played to put investors' own money to work. In this book, readers will learn about:
* Political development of US hegemony in the 20th century, from the founding of the Federal Reserve in 1913 through to the present
* Past and current conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Russia and their effects on finance
* The response to the Financial Panic of '08, including a decade of Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP)
With investors more eager than ever to protect their investments, The Empire of Debt is an essential guide to the future of finance, harnessing history to accurately plot where we are and where we're going.
