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Freedom Book of the Month for January, 2004:
"Financial Reckoning Day: Surviving the Soft Depression of the 21st Century"
by William Bonner and Addison Wiggin
John Wiley & Sons, 2003, hardcover, 306 pp.
I'm not a betting person. I'm really not a betting person. I don't buy insurance, I don't play the ponies or cards or join NCAA basketball pools, and I don't play the market nor follow the world of finance. It's always seemed to me that the latter -- stock markets and investing -- are much more a form of gambling mixed with crystal-ball gazing than science. Thus, I was skeptical when Financial Reckoning Day arrived on my desk for consideration as Freedom Book of the Month; I thought I'd be wading through jargon-laden prognosticating the likes of which I've not seen since graduate school.
I'm happy to say I was very wrong. Financial Reckoning Day: Surviving the Soft Depression of the 21st Century is an interesting, amusing blend of history and current events geared toward understanding markets, money, and the manipulations thereof. William Bonner (of The Daily Reckoning, www.dailyreckoning.com) and Addison Wiggin look back to show how bubbles are not new phenomena in the finance world, and take on other myopias many seem to have regarding markets. A very interesting myopia many libertarians may have is with Fed chairman Alan Greenspan; Bonner and Wiggin devote an entire fascinating chapter to demythologizing him as a "gold bug" and friend of economic freedom.
Financial Reckoning Day is in essence a book on social praxeology, if I may coin a subdiscipline, because it focuses on the effects aggregate individual choices can have. From economic difficulties after both world wars to hopping on the dot-com/postmodern financial faddism of the 1990s, Bonner and Wiggin show that perception (as opposed to reality) weighs heavily in individuals' decision-making. Thus, even rational individuals can be fooled by something that's "too good to be true" -- especially when it involves money and investing, areas where nation-states have a vested interest in maintaining appearances. By examining current and historical market trends as well as demographic trends (the market is after all a superlative distillation of crowd behavior), Bonner and Wiggin make a strong case that the U.S. economy is going to go through a depression similar to the one that's still affecting the Japanese economy.
Financial Reckoning Day shows, in gritty detail, the fallacy underlying all the economists' mathematical models of markets and economies. Like all of human behavior, predicting the economic future from the recent past is dubious at best; human behavior is exceedingly complex, and the models break down somewhere in the transition from individual choice to aggregate results. As such, this is really more a book about what *not* to do to help yourself survive an economic downturn. Don't rely on today's media darlings; don't expect to outplay the market; and don't rely on pension funds or other schemes that are subject to government meddling are some of the implicit bits of advice Bonner and Wiggin offer. The explicit advice is rather more scarce, but Financial Reckoning Day is not less valuable for that.
Liberally sprinkled with myth-shattering observations, including ones addressing capitalism, consumerism, democracy, and freedom, Financial Reckoning Day is an insider's view of the world of high finance written in everyday language and from a personal perspective. It's an informative, entertaining amalgam of looking back -- as well as around the world -- and ahead. I'm still not a betting person, but armed with what I learned from Bonner and Wiggin, I'm a little more confident that some financial advisors have decent foresight.
, current price $19.57
More book information for January 2004
edited by Sunni Maravillosa
December 2003: Diversity: The Invention of a Concept by Peter Wood
November 2003: A Drug War Carol by Susan W Wells and Scott Bieser
October 2003: Healing Our World in an Age of Aggression by Mary J Ruwart
September 2003: Hecate's Glory by Karen Michalson
August 2003: The Bias Against Guns by John R Lott Jr
July 2003: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
June 2003: Eco-nomics by Richard L. Stroup
May 2003: The Worm in the Apple by Peter Brimelow
April 2003: Shattered Dreams by NCPPR staff
March 2003: The Rule of Lawyers by Walter K. Olson
February 2003: Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths, edited by Ronald Bailey
Freedom Book of the Year 2002: The Ballad of Carl Drega by Vin Suprynowicz
December 2002: Blood of the Roses, by Alex Gabbard
November 2002: The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science, by Ludwig von Mises
October 2002: The Haunted Air, by F. Paul Wilson
September 2002: Lead Astray and Out of Bounds, Out of Control by Peter Samuel and James V. DeLong respectively
August 2002: Boston's Gun Bible II by Boston T. Party
July 2002: Economics for Real People by Gene Callahan
June 2002: Net Assets by Carl Bussjaeger
May 2002: The Ballad of Carl Drega by Vin Suprynowicz
April 2002: Toward Liberty: The Idea that is Changing the World edited by David Boaz
March 2002: Liberty for Women edited by Wendy McElroy
February 2002: The State vs. the People by Aaron Zelman and Claire Wolfe
Freedom Book of the Year, 2001: Hope by Aaron Zelman and L. Neil Smith
January 2002: Death by Gun Control by Aaron Zelman and Richard W. Stevens
December 2001: The American Zone by L. Neil Smith
November 2001: Ayn Rand and Business by Donna Greiner and Theodore Kinni
October 2001: Junk Science Judo by Steven J. Milloy
September 2001: Jonathan Gullible by Ken Schoolland
August 2001: Hope by L. Neil Smith and Aaron Zelman
July 2001: Dissenting Electorate edited by Wendy McElroy and Carl Watner
June 2001: Tethered Citizens by Sheldon Richman
May 2001: Lever Action by L. Neil Smith
April 2001: The Cato Handbook for Congress from the Cato Institute
March 2001: The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand by David Kelley
February 2001: Crypto by Steven Levy
January 2001: Total Freedom by Chris Matthew Sciabarra
Freedom Book of the Year 2000: Forge of the Elders by L. Neil Smith
December 2000: The Mystery of Capital by Hernando de Soto
November 2000: Escape from Leviathan by J.C. Lester
October 2000: The Art of Political War by David Horowitz
September 2000: An Enemy of the State by Justin Raimondo
August 2000: The Triumph of Liberty by Jim Powell
July 2000: A Generation Divided by Rebecca Klatch
June 2000: Law's Order by David Friedman
May 2000: Forge of the Elders by L. Neil Smith
April 2000: Reciprocia by Richard G. Rieben
March 2000: The Art of Fiction: A Guide for Writers and Readers by Ayn Rand
February 2000: Addiction is a Choice by Jeffrey A. Schaler
January 2000: Revolutionary Language by David C. Calderwood
Special December 1999 Feature: The Freedom Book of the Year: Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998 by Vin Suprynowicz
November 1999: Conquests and Cultures by Thomas Sowell
October 1999: A Way To Be Free by Robert LeFevre, edited by Wendy McElroy
September 1999: Assassins (Left Behind) by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
August 1999: Don't Shoot the Bastards (Yet): 101 More Ways to Salvage Freedom by Claire Wolfe
July 1999: The Mitzvah by L. Neil Smith and Aaron Zelman
June 1999: The Incredible Bread Machine by R.W. Grant
May 1999: Send in the Waco Killers by Vin Suprynowicz
April 1999: It Still Begins with Ayn Rand by Jerome Tuccille
March 1999: The Dictionary of Free-Market Economics by Fred Foldvary
February 1999: Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand edited by Mimi Reisel Gladstein and Chris Matthew Sciabarra
In December 2004 this page was modified significantly from its original form for archiving purposes.
, founded in 1995, is now a part of ISIL.
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