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Average Customer Rating:

Prophetic economic analysis

Customer Rating:

Subsequent events have proven this book to be somewhat prophetic. Richard Duncan offers a very good, although somewhat dry, exposition of the international financial structures that emerged in the wake of the failure of the Bretton Woods system. The author is reasonably evenhanded in his assessment of these structures, noting that they made extremely rapid development possible, but at the great risk of economic crisis. In the wake of the subprime mortgage setbacks of 2007 and 2008, few well-informed people would argue with the author's indictment of excessive credit expansion. Still, many might argue with his conclusions, especially with his support of a global central bank and a global minimum wage. For those seeking a clear, informed exposition of the systemic vulnerabilities that culminated in the global credit crisis of 2008, getAbstract suggests this book as an excellent starting point.

compelling, enjoyable and brilliantly analysed

Customer Rating:

Every day we are barraged by so much raw data on GDP, borrowing, exchange rates and trade deficits etc. The 'facts' we see on business news TV and in learned economic journals are plentiful. Sadly, long lists of facts aren't particularly useful if, like most people, you don't know how to analyse them usefully. This book makes sense of the economic forces that underpin the dollar and the US stock market, putting today's precarious situation into historical perspective and explaining why the dollar must fall. Lucid explanations abound along with plenty of charts and recaps of all the important points exactly when you were about to let something slip from the front of your mind. Brilliant on the qualitative arguments but even more impressive on the quantitative stuff. This is a far more serious work than most of its competition like "Financial Reckoning Day" which I read on the same day. If you're into having your thoughts and opinions backed up with meaningful fact based analysis then this is the book for you.