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| The Second Great Depression | 
 enlarge | Author: Warren Brussee
Publisher: Booklocker.com, Inc.
Category: Book
Buy New: $600.00
Buy New/Used from $600.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  (28 reviews)
Sales Rank: 262780
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
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Very worthwhile reading November 9, 2006
16 out of 17 found this review helpful
The author offers fairly complelling evidence for his prediction - I have actually checked the Personal Savings Rate [...] and found that his prediction in that area is still holding firm. Recent (Nov '06) news reports also agree that the public debt is reaching unsustainable levels. Now the stock market is going even higher (read over-valued) so we have a situation that appears to be just the scenario that the author paints.
The book is fairly dry but unfortunately the bare facts usually are.
 Convincing! June 11, 2006
16 out of 22 found this review helpful
Based on clear analysis of economic facts, Brussees conclusions are very convincing. Get ready!
Max Otte, Ph.D.
Professor of International Business
 Scary Perhaps May 25, 2006
45 out of 66 found this review helpful
It's a real bold move placing the start and end date on the cover. I figure he's got about 9 more months of sales before this book will go into the pile of outlandish titles along with "DOW 36,000" or "DOW 100,000"
I read the book after hearing the podcast on Jim Puplava's Financial Sense online site. Mr. Brussee relies heavily on Treasury Inflation-protected Securities as the best place to put your money during this "depression." The main problem with that assumption is: How can you rely on getting accurately indexed inflation protection from the same agency that's responsible for reporting the inflation numbers? In a word, can't.
Since the measure of inflation (as measured by CPI) was changed several years ago with hedonic adjustments, anyone investing in TIPS is placing a lot of faith in the government to be honest on two conflicting fronts: undereporting inflation to keep the growth of entitlements down while accurately reflecting the growth of inflation on the TIPS bonds. Not gonna happen!
As for the author's claim that the housing market rolling over is going to kick-start the next depression, and that it will start in 2007, I can hardly wait to see this play out, either for or against the author's claim. Unfortunately, as I alluded to in my opening of this review, the book is more likely to land in the pile of outlandish claims than to provide you with accurate "what to do in case..."
A better plan for a depression, if you indeed buy the author's claim that one starts next year, would be to read Robert Prechter's book, Conquer the Crash. His book is filled with several practical resources on how to survive and prosper if a depression actually hits, and it's a lot better advice than to rely on the one-trick-pony of TIPS to protect your wealth.
Pass on this book.
May be too true by 2006. May 19, 2006
27 out of 29 found this review helpful
Some people don't think this book is credible because it's written by somebody who is an engineer by trade, not an economist. Well, this reviewer has a degree in business and it's almost a horror book from an economic point of view.
This book and "Empire of Debt" say the main problems with the USA. We have too much debt. Nearly every household in America carries over $10K just in credit card debt. The average household in the USA only makes $45K per year. That means they carry nearly 25% in unsecured debt. This does not count car loans, household loans, and other financial obligations.
Since this book was written it has been largely coming true in Michigan. On 18 May 2006 the unemployment rate in Michigan is nearly 8%. Economists will bluntly tell you that it's underreported and the real level of unemployment is 12%. That is hard recession if not depression levels for an area.
However, while States like Michigan are dying you can count on Washington D.C. to fiddle. Has Federal regulations been limited? No, and this book says quite a bit about the anti-business climate of our government. Can this nation look for energy? No, and this book says that higher energy prices will be one of the causes of the coming depression of the '07 years.
There are so many factors out that can cause panic in the financial markets that it can give sleepless nights to anybody who knows a lot about finances. Federal Spending has caused a record debt of over 9 trillion dollars. The GDP is only 15 trillion. State and local governments all have massive amounts of debt. Then there is consumer debt. The aggregate result of all these debts is this country just has a pile of IOU notes to each other. Note, Brazil and Argentina had near problems in the late '70s. Brazil found oil and may recover. Argentina is near poverity. Debt is toxic. Nobody in government knows that. All the citizens in this nations, along with the illegal aliens, want "free, free, free" and never figure out it has to be paid for some way.
This book is largely coming true. For some people it's merely the obvious. There are many people who do not want to know the truth. What can be said? Many people who were on the Titanic didn't think there was a problem until the water went over the bow.
This is an excellent introduction to our economic problems. This is a rare five star book that is very readable and makes sense to the average American.
The only trouble with this book is its coming true.
An interesting read March 24, 2006
61 out of 70 found this review helpful
It's a scary book, but maybe not half as scary as it should/could have been. The publishers faced the usual quandry - how to tune just the right balance of fear (get their eyeballs) leavened by hope (you'll be OK). A razor's edge for doomster types of books.
But I'm not saying this book is unrealistic. While the author does devote a few pages to cinematic doom stuff, it felt to me as though the scary "depression" theme was grafted at a late stage onto a fairly run-of-the-mill book on conservative investing strategies and retirement financial planning.
What's WB's limited imagination apparently does not extend to are things such as Peak Oil, World War III, a pandemic of Extinction Level Event magnitude, runaway climate change, and so on - though I'm not saying that he should have explicitly addressed all that in a single book on his single subject.
My point is that he spends so many pages on very detailed calculations and tables around mild stuff like how to re-invest in the market, how to get an extra percentage point here and their in your retirement savings - all the while apparently oblivious to the strong possibility that a depression of the magnitude he envisions could well trigger or be grotesquely compounded by any of the above singularities and more - it would then be a total bonfire of the certainties. Thus his mildly scolding, timidly middle-class schoolmarm'ish tone didn't always seem to match the content of his message.
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