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| Crash Proof: How to Profit From the Coming Economic Collapse (Lynn Sonberg Books) | 
 enlarge | Authors: Peter D. Schiff, John Downes
Publisher: Wiley
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
Buy New: $15.06
You Save: $12.89 (46%)
New (39) Used (16) from $15.06
Avg. Customer Rating:  231 reviews
Sales Rank: 1131
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 0470043601
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.60973
EAN: 9780470043608
ASIN: 0470043601
Publication Date: February 26, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW
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| Customer Reviews:
 Finally a person who makes unlike Paulson and the Fed July 30, 2008
Warning, a quote from the book. (Page 87)
Business Cycles
According to the classical economists, like Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich A. von Hayek of the Austrian school, recessions should not be resisted but embraced. Not that recessions are any fun, but they are necessary to correct conditions caused by the real problem, which is the artificial boom that precede them. Such booms, created by greed, others by inflation, send false signals to the capital markets that there are additional savings in the economy to support higher levels of investment. Ultimately, when the mistakes are revealed, the malinvestments, as Mises called them, are liquidated, creating the bust. Legitimate economic expansions, financed by actual savings, do not need busts. It is only the greed and inflation-induced varieties that sow the seeds of their own destruction.
This flies into the face of modern economic thinking that regards the business cycle as the inevitable result of some flaw in the capitalist system and sees the government's role as mitigating or preventing recessions. Nothing could be further from the truth. Boom/Bust cycles are not inevitable and would not occur were it not for the inflationary monetary policies that always precede recessions.
The Modern Federal Reserve: An Engine Of Inflation And A Creator Of Booms And Busts
The Federal Reserve turned the concept of the elastic money supply on its head by expanding the money supply indefinately. When the economy expands, the Fed expands the money supply, and then when the economy contracts, it expands the money supply even faster, in an effort to stimulate spending to offset those contractions. It's like a heroin addict trying to kick the habit who shoots up each time any withdrawal symptoms set in. It is a painless way to go, but one unlikely to produce a healthy outcome.
So the Federal reserve ultimately became nothing more than an engine of perpetual inflation, the precise opposite of what it was originally intended to be. Today the money supply is anything but elastic, as it always expands and never contracts. Had such a harebrained scheme been proposed at its inception when the Fed was created in 1913, the concept of the Fed never would have seen the light of day and its proponents would have been laughed out of Washignton.
Excellent Investment Advice July 14, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Peter Schiff's amazing prescient books explains in simple terms the inner workings of the US economy and the problems inherent there in.
Crash Proof Your Portfolio July 7, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
The author decries the devaluing of the dollar,
inflation and the looming trade deficits.
The book indicates that the USA is too dependent
upon foreign lending. Foreigners hold too many
Treasuries. Americans save too little and consume
too much in comparison to the rest of the world.
Our dependence upon foreign manufacturing contributes
to the trade deficit. The book shows how less
regulation, tax relief and more economic development
can turn things around. Computer models have become
highly productive in the area of design engineering.
Gold and precious metals are at an historic buying
opportunity. Demand for goods and services is artificial
when not productivity induced. An example of good debt
is capital formation connected to a thriving business.
Bad debt is money lent for excess or frivolous
consumption. An example would be taking out a second
mortgage on a house to finance a vacation.
Right now, Europe enjoys a balance of trade surplus.
The purchasing power of the Chinese is increasing at
a time when the dollar is falling. Canadian oil and gas
investments yield 12% or more. Hong Kong and Thailand
are also good investment arenas. Coal stocks are yielding
good dividends. As the dollar falls, gold and precious
metals rise. The ETF gold shares can be good investments;
however, investors may not have the same creditor priority
in bankruptcy according to the authors. Examples of good
gold ETFs are GLD and CEF (Central Fund Canada) shares.
The author believes that the USA should pursue a sound
money policy with limited government and less regulation.
Potential gold stocks worthy of investment are Newmont Mining
Corporation and Goldcorp.
Overall, the acquisition would be helpful in crafting an
investment portfolio to weather some market corrections
on the horizon. The extent of the market corrections will
depend upon investor perceptions as to government
responsiveness on a number of fronts. These historic
challenges include energy independence, debt management,
structural government spending, meaningful regulatory
compliance, the abolition of unnecessary regulations,
FDA protocol simplification and a host of other issues
too numerous to delineate in a finite review.
simply great July 5, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
I have read many books on the current crisis by very famous people like Soros, Wiggins etc., they all go into convoluted discussions which are, in my opinion, non-sensical. This book calls a spade a spade. One can quibble with the definition of inflation and deflation. Maybe it is too aggressive in accusing the government of deception, bu I don't think so. But the facts are facts. It is written very well. A must read.
Simple language for a simple problem June 30, 2008
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Peter Schiff has a gift for making obvious that which eludes most of us, and putting it into simple language. For example, he points out our nation's debt to others, called a capital account surplus, is really a debt surplus, and this is financed by borrowing money from abroad. The government pretends to measure productivity with GDP, but GDP just measures debt-based consumption and inflation. Despite the Fed rhetoric, deflation is not bad at all: rising prices are normal in a healthy economy, as productivity rises.
This book points out what should be obvious, but what we as a nation forgot: true wealth is created by underconsumption and savings and capital formation that goes into making more productivity, not by our current way of borrowing from overseas to consume. Consumption does not create wealth, and our day of reckoning will come with a weak dollar and lower standard of living. How to prepare?
In the final 3 chapters, he outlines what can be done to survive the inevitable economic crash caused by overborrowing and overconsumption: invest in dividend-paying foreign stocks (you get the cash dividend plus appreciation of the foreign currency), and precious metals.
If you have never considered such an investment strategy, this book will wake you up.
I really like his simple language, his ability to foresee what eludes others (tech bubble, housing bubble), and his commitment to make money in ways that help other people. I read his website every day, so when the book came out, I ordered it before it was published. I've lent it to several friends already.
If you like this topic, also consider Bill Fleckenstein's The Age of Turbulence and Richard Duncan's more technical, The Dollar Crisis.
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