Time for the Endgame:
A Few Reviews
By John Mauldin
It is time for you to buy Endgame: The End of the Debt Supercycle and How It Changes Everything. Rather than me talking about the book, let me offer a review from Amazon by Rob Arnott, one of 18 reviews posted there (very, very positive so far). Go to Amazon and read them and then go to your book store or buy it online at Amazon or Barnes and Noble. And consider getting a few extra copies for friends and family so you get free shipping! Thanks. And don't procrastinate!
And now, let's see what others are saying:
From Rob on Amazon:
This is an amazing book. Mauldin's best yet. And, it's IMPORTANT. Anyone who cares about their own financial future, beyond the usual 2-3 year (or shorter!) investment horizon that seems to drive most investors, MUST read this book.
We have a developed world that's addicted to debt-financed consumption. That pattern works ... until it doesn't. When it doesn't we get Greece, Iceland, Ireland and all-too-soon others, some far larger. The US is far from exempt. Our debt burden - without Washington's accounting games - is already well past the point of no return, as is Japan, and much of the Euro-zone.
In late 2009, I wrote a short white paper entitled "The 3-D Hurricane," which explored how deficits, debt and demographics combine to create a "perfect storm," unless we plan ahead and get debt and deficits under control. It's the height of lunacy to expect the economy to keep merrily growing, with a debt overhang and demographic headwinds. John systematically takes us through the consequences of this hurricane and helps us construct a life-boat to survive this storm.
The geo-economic challenges we face in the years ahead will be the most important in generations. The geopolitical challenges may very well be similarly daunting. After all, blaming others for our own mistakes is part of human nature and is especially embedded in the psyche of politicians all over the world.
The picture that John paints is ugly. But, he's merely presenting the truth. Forewarned is forearmed. If you have an investment portfolio, a pension, or even ill-defined and underfunded plans for your long-term future, you'd be nuts not to read this. Read it carefully, thoughtfully, and with an open mind.
John, you dedicate this book to Peter Bernstein, a big-hearted soul, a dear friend and a deep thinker who introduced the two of us. If he's somewhere looking down on our crazy world, he'd be proud of your latest magnum opus. Congratulations on a truly brilliant book.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Thanks, Rob. And now here are some comments by a few names you may know:
"This is an extremely powerful, sobering, well written and highly accessible book. It will demonstrate to you why there are no painless solutions to the mounting debt problems around the world—something that too many people are yet to realize. It will take you on a well-documented journey through the debt super cycle, making stops around the world and at critical junctures. And it is a must-read for anyone wishing to understand the global debt dynamics and ways to protect against its bad consequences. "
—Mohamed A. El-Erian, CEO, PIMCO; author of When Markets Collide
"No one has thought more creatively about the economy. Mauldin's weekly newsletter is a must-read and his book is even more important if you want to understand a rapidly changing world."
—Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House of Representatives
"Successful investors explore all possibilities. You should read this book so you can succeed in case the Endgame is our future."
—Jim Rogers, author of A Gift to My Children
"I read everything John Mauldin writes. He travels the world and shares his financial stories like a good friend sharing a drink. Mauldin is that rarity—a skeptical optimist— who calls 'em straight and rewards his clients and fans."
—Rich Karlgaard, Publisher and Columnist, Forbes magazine
"There's clearly something important going on in the world economy. Something big. Something powerful and dangerous. But something as yet undefined and uncertain. We are all feeling our way around in the dark, trying to figure out what it is. John Mauldin must have night vision glasses. He does an excellent job of seeing the obstacles. You should read this book before you knock over a lamp and stumble over the furniture."
William Bonner, President and CEO of Agora Inc.
author of Dice Have No Memory and Empire of Debt
"Endgame not only is a highly readable and informative account of the causes of the recent global economic and financial meltdown, but it also provides investors with a concrete investment strategy from which they can benefit while this final act in financial history is being played out."
Marc Faber, Managing Director, Marc Faber, Ltd.
Editor, Gloom Boom & Doom Report
"I think the book is brilliant. It is well written, crystal clear, and hits the spot. My favorite chapters are the ones on fingers of instability (which I think everyone in finance should read and reread each year lest they forget), and the one on Eastern Europe as both a leading indicator for what's in store and a potential land mine that could yet do for the euro what Credit Anstaldt did for the gold standard. But it's a tough call. Lots of very good stuff in here."
Dylan Grice, Global Strategy Team, Societe Generale
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Greece is a basket case, Ireland on life support, and Japan a bug in search of a windshield. In the times ahead, the global sovereign debt and credit crisis will continue to spread like wildfire. And while no nation, developed or emerging, can escape the pain, the extent of the disaster and how it plays itself out will vary from country to country. Endgame provides the road map ahead. In Endgame, authors Mauldin and Tepper:
- Reveal why the world economy is in for a protracted period of slow growth, high unemployment, volatile markets, and persistent recessions
- Review global markets, country-by-country, detailing population trends, government policies, currency outlooks, and more
- Offer investors practical advice on how to protect their assets through the worst of it and profit from ongoing opportunities.
Hundreds of books have been written about the financial crisis that engulfed the world after Lehman Brothers went bankrupt. But what if the bigger financial crisis is ahead of us, not behind us?
As John Mauldin and Jonathan Tepper deftly illustrate in this controversial book, the crisis was more than a half-century in the making. The Great Financial Crisis, however, was merely Act I. Act II has now begun. The massive household deleveraging and historic shift of private debt onto government balance sheets now underway all over the world represents the end of a sixty-year global Debt Supercycle. We have now entered the Endgame, a time when bankruptcies and defaults (disguised as "restructuring") will not be of households and companies but of governments. The stakes are now higher. The coming crises will offer policymakers few good choices and many bad ones. It will require extraordinary clarity and courage from leaders, courage that so far is largely completely lacking.
Yet, despite the authors' dark forecast, the message in Endgame is not all gloom and doom. The book lays out positive steps governments can take to weather the worst of the stormy days ahead, minimize the inevitable pain and discomfort most of us can expect to experience, and chart a bold new course to sustained economic growth and prosperity.
It also offers investors an abundance of useful analysis and expert advice on how to protect their assets during the worst of it and prosper from the many new opportunities that will emerge globally as they present themselves.
In Part 2, the authors take readers on a country-by-country tour—including the United States, UK, European countries, and Japan—clearly explaining the problems each country faces, as well as the good and bad policy options open to each, and the investment pitfalls and opportunities likely to be found in each national economy.
Whether you call it the Great Recession, the Great Financial Crisis, or the Global Debt Crisis, what we are experiencing is unlike anything seen in eighty years. Now is not the time to succumb to panic and superstition. It is a time for courage and intelligent decision making informed by the brand of rational analysis and wisdom you'll find in Endgame.
Again, here are the links: thanks so much for your support:
Your hoping you like the book as well analyst,
John Mauldin
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