| The Second Great Depression | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 26 reviews)
Sales Rank: 3003
Category: Book
Author: Warren Brussee
Publisher: Booklocker.com, Inc.
Studio: Booklocker.com, Inc.
Manufacturer: Booklocker.com, Inc.
Label: Booklocker.com, Inc.
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 300
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.9 x 7 x 0.7
ISBN: 1591136881
Dewey Decimal Number: 332
EAN: 9781591136880
ASIN: 1591136881
Publication Date: March 18, 2005
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
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Product Description
The Second Great Depression This is a frightening book. It shows how massive consumer debt triggered this second depression, which started in 2007/2008. The exuberance of the overheated stock market of the 90s caused consumers to stop saving and go into debt. Then, the dramatic drop in mortgage rates enabled people to refinance their homes and go even further into debt. People were no longer living on what they could afford; instead they were living the lifestyle they thought they deserved, costs be damned! With payments increasing, savings rates near zero, and debt at its maximum; many people were pushed over their debt limit, having homes foreclosed or going into bankruptcy. Others are heeding the warnings and reducing spending, causing a dramatic slowing of the economy. To survive this depression, savings should be in Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, and the stock market should only be reentered after it drops 68% from its early 2008 level. Included charts show required savings for retirement in this environment. In this depression, the United States will be brought to its knees. But not unlike the mythical bird Phoenix that dies in flames and is then reborn out of its own ashes, the United States will also be reborn. However, it will be a poorer and less arrogant country that emerges from its own ashes. "This is a book that anyone - young, old or anywhere in between - should read and study. It is superbly researched and thoughtfully written. The first half of the book is a window into the future and the second half is an outstanding guideline for facing that future. This is the most important book I have read." Christopher Welker,
General Manager of Technology
for a Fortune 100 Company
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| Customer Reviews: Read 21 more reviews...
 Labor of Love September 24, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
One would expect a substantial number of facts and figures with a work like this. But in the opinion of this reviewer, the preponderence of same actually bogged this vital book down. Not for the average reader who lacks a basic understanding of economics. An aptitude for mathematics would also help someone to digest this material.
 Quite interesting, I like the format, alarmingly accurate. September 20, 2008
With all of the doom and gloom in our financial markets, I wanted to take in a few authors opinions and try and come to my own conclusion. (Cramer is not my fortune teller) With that said, the author lays out a lot of the structural problems in the financial industry and predicts what he think will become of it. He has updated the original version to include some of the latest information as well gloat (rightfully so) over being right on about 80% of his predictions.
The more I read the book and realize that this guy has been quite accurate, the more I realize how dire our financial system is and how close to collapse we are. I applaud the author for his predictions but am not happy with his predictions for the future. So far, the best and most accurate doom and gloom book I've read.
 WHAT A COP OUT! August 15, 2008
2 out of 10 found this review helpful
What a cop out! Now that his 2007-2020 Second Great Depression has failed to materialize with 2008 2/3rds over, it is being repackaged as a newly titled "debt" book. A warm welcome Warren to the rather full club of authors who predicted disaster on a timeframe that didn't happen. You failed simply because you ignored the greatest force in the economy - the consumer. Every economist knows that the GDP is made up 90%+ by consumer spending - 60-70% directly plus government spending of the 28% of income they take in taxes. In other words GDP is ALWAYS driven by demographics over the longterm. There IS a monstrous crisis coming based on demographics however - go read Arnold's The Great Bust Ahead (published 2002), in which all his predictions have come to pass so far and the "big one" left is yet to come on his 2010-2012 schedule.
astoundingly accurate predictions July 3, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I wonder whether some of the people who wrote reviews of this book in 2006 would have been more generous with their praise if they were writing their reviews today.
I was just reading through his chapter 4 on what the depression will look like and the predictions he made for the present time frame are a virtual carbon copy of the actual headlines in the financial news of this year.
Some criticized his great specificity of predictions. That is indeed a very risky thing to do. I would be satisfied with a book that made predictions of a much more general nature if I found that it had done a decent job of anticipating the general trends in the economy.
But Mr. Brussee insisted on making a whole slew of very specific predictions. And guess what, the vast majority of what he predicted for the present time frame has come to pass!
Brussee appears to me to be one of a number of people who have independently come to similar conclusions about where the economy is headed. Although there is a great deal of commonality in the beliefs of these people (e.g., the central role that an ever-expanding spiral of debt has in creating the economic woes we now face), I find it interesting that this what now probably should be referred to as a "contemporary school of economic thought", did not arise from a bunch of inbred cronies in some ideologically-permeated academic institutions, but instead has emerged from a bunch of disparate individuals within our society who share one common characteristic- an unwillingness to accept the spoon-fed economic notions of the "don't worry be happy" (DWBH) school of economics that dominates the financial media, an establishment epitomized by the likes of Larry "King Dollar" Kudlow.
I am very pleased that the renegades have a wonderful media outlet for their particular perspective, namely Jim Puplava and John Loeffler's financialsense.com. (and, financialsense also provides an outlet for a considerable diversity of views, although you won't see many articles posted there by adherents to the DWBH school of economics, but no need for that since they have the entire rest of the financial media to get their point of view out.
There is a lot of financial commentary today by the "renegades" (perhaps the best term for them is the "sound money" advocates, alhthough that is only one attribute of this economic philosophy, it seems to be the one most consistently a part of those in this (loosely-defined) group.)
However, one thing to keep in mind with Mr. Brussee's writing:
HE WROTE THIS BACK IN 2004, FOR GOD'S SAKE!
I was not following the financial writings back then that I am today, but I am confident that there was very little being written at that time with the clarity, detail, and foresight, of this book.
When I think about: "What have I learned from this book that is new?"
The concept that Brussee espouses that is most new to me is the contention that the credit crisis has been building for the past couple of decades and that the US would have been in a depression in the 1990's if it had not been for the artificial stimulus of consumer debt expansion.
I always thought our current economic crisis began with the tech bubble.
But I find Brussee's hypothesis on the matter to be persuasive.
Now there have been reviews complaining about the latter part of the book and all the graphs and stuff. Thank you for those reviews. I think I will probably not bother to read the rest of the book.
So how can I give it 5 stars? Because part I of the book, if it were a standalone book, would be worthy of 5 stars. If you feel you must judge the entire book, I encourage you to tear out pages 85 and beyond first and then judge the full book.
The one other substantive matter I wanted to bring up is that some reviews commented on the lack of investment advice in how to deal with the depression, and also the author's affinity for treasury protected securities.
I don't feel there is any obligation for such a book to include investment advice. The opposite extreme I guess would be the book "Profit from the Peak" about peak oil, which is really a tutorial about peak oil much more so than a guide to investing in a peak oil world.
(by the way, the author's foresight was evident also in the chapter "What Else May Trigger the Depression" which included a very prescient discussion of the risk of high energy prices.)
Where was I? Oh yes, treasury protected securities. Unless the author discusses it in part II, one thing he does not assert in the book is the belief held by most SM advocates that the government's formulas for inflation tend to understate what would be calculated under a more meaningful and relevant definition of inflation. Hence, treasury protected securities are probably nearly as worthless garbage as regular treasury bonds.
So, there are my two criticisms of the book:
1). Part II looks so dry, and I have been forewarned about it, that I am not even going to read it.
2). Author does not express contempt for the government's inflation numbers.
Other than that, this was in my view one OUTSTANDING book.
One other thought about the question of investment advice: If the author indeed has done a good job of predicting the economic trends going into 2020, then it should be possible for one to translate that into specific investment decisions without explicit advice on what to invest in.
In fact, specific investment advice may be risky. In the book "Profit from the Peak" the authors for example recommend US oil refiners who can handle heavy sour crude. However, oil producing nations like Saudi Arabia whose new production will increasingly be of the lower grade "heavy sour" variety are interested in building refineries themselves so that they can generate more of the revenue from their oil and provide more domestic jobs.
But, I do have one piece of investment advice which is forget about Treasury Protected Securities as any sort of safe haven in an inflationary depression.
Government Paper June 20, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I like this book but for me half of the book was useless statistics and charts and tables. I am more interested in ideas. Mr. Brussee is a very smart man and I agree with him and I went though this well researched book and took my trusty high-light marker and marked some important statements and ideas. However, I just don't see who in their right mind would buy Government Paper. TIPS and Federal Bonds and Treasury Bonds are the problem. A government bond is a paper that's backed up by a promise which is backed up by nothing stronger than a toot in the wind several years down the road. There is so much of this stuff floating around the world that it's not even paper any more! It's electronic. It's a book keeping entry. I buy my children physical silver coins. Lots of them. My concern is that when all of your paper promises and electronic accounting vanish, angry mobs and the Federal Government will come looking for my coins. I agree with Mr. Brussee. The Next Great Depression is coming, however, it's not the Second. He forgets the American Depression of 1845-1850, and he also forgets 1873. I hope we can make it until 2010-2012 before the wheels start coming off the little red wagon. Regards, Keith Renick, Peachtree City, Ga.
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