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Written in 2006, he was prescient in seeing the destructive forces at work in our economy. If only half of of Mr Panzners projections come true we are in for a bad time. Worth reading.
Written a couple years before it happened. Informative of the way financial markets work. Right on target for what we have seen in the economy. Gives a great deal of credibility to what he predicts for the future.
Now, looking back, I do find his deflation-inflation theory compelling. That gave me chills. I read it in summer 2008 and threw it in the trash because I thought it was too negative and too much hype, propaganda, and scare tactics. When that happened, I thought back to the book and how it predicted a market crash, followed by hyper deflation followed by hyper inflation. Could he have been right after all. At the time, I could not tell if the author really believed all of the stuff he was predicting or if he was just hyping his scenerio because he is a sensational journalist. I just thought it was one author's exaggerated take on what could happen. Then came the Freddie & Fanny take overs, Lehman Bros bankruptcy, 60 Minutes report on Credit Default Swaps, and the stock market meltdown in October 2008.
Was I in denial about how bad things really were. I thought he was an excellent writer, but a little on the subjective and sensational side to be totally credible. This book is scary. Plus, I didn't want to believe it. I remember the book suggesting to invest in food if prices start coming down, because they will whipsaw back up to crazy levels, and then.the "unraveling" of our society.
This was the Suzi Orman meets Stephen King moment when every vision was through the darkest of lenses, often involving statements given as factual, which are in actuality conjectural. Chaos: Making a New Science Take heart. The near term accuracy of Mr. Respect the research.
The first fifty percent of this book was rock solid and well annotated reportage on a subject the author knows very well; the reports regarding the critical instability of the situation as of May of 2008, were presented with tons of useful detail. It was just after halfway through, at a Kindle's 51% when the author, filling out the book, reached into areas of complexity beyond his expertise, and beyond anybody's ability to know in advance. The discussion of the turbulent regime in Gleick's Chaos, is one of many sources to the point that exacting prediction in complex systems is not possible, and yet the author here pronounces these worst case scenarios as utterly unavoidable. Don't buy into the vision that hope is lost, the book does not make that case, it merely states it. An interesting aspect of Kindle is that progress in the book is shown in percentiles.
Panzner's projections would be difficult to challenge. Make use of the facts.
This book, though published in 2007 and presumably written in late 2006, reads like a history of the events in 2008.I went thru it in a night, and was utterly speechless concerning how exactly Panzner nailed it.While there are some items and events in the text that have yet to be realized, my supposition is that I need only hold my breath a little longer for the next shoe to drop.I highly recommend this book.
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