An Open Letter To Senators and Members of The House

“Ben Bernanke is going to have a challenge,” said Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel-prize winning economist at Columbia University in an interview yesterday. “He’s inheriting an economy that has some fragility going forward. The high level of debt, rising interest rates, problems of oil – all of this means he is going to have to manage the economy in a very difficult situation.”

Really. Good thing Bernanke is lily footing his way around the Senate then, huh? Yesterday he promised to “maintain continuity with the policies and policy strategies established during the Greenspan years.” Bravo. Can’t wait.

For our part in the circus, we sent – as we’ve been threatening to do – 537 copies of our new book Empire of Debt to all the Senators. And their cohorts across the rotunda. And the Commander-in-Chief down the street.

The cover letter we be sent with the book suggested that continuing the policies of Alan Greenspan, while it might be what the country wants, is not likely to yield the desired result.  Please read below…

Empire of Debt is a wakeup call – as well as a call to arms for every American. “Although the authors don’t claim to have a crystal ball,” writes Doug Casy, chairman of Casey Research, “as far as I’m concerned they offer as clear and likely accurate a view of the future as you’re going to find.”

“It’s a shame, that the average person in the Western world, and especially the United States, will never read Empire of Debt,” agrees best-selling author Robert Ringer, (Action! Nothing Happens Until Something Moves). “It is one of the most well-written, concise, candid and informative books” on the subject.

“Trust me when I tell you,” says Richard Daughty of the Mogambo Guru economic newsletter, “this is a book you want to own.”

Title: Empire of Debt: The Rise Of An Epic Financial Crisis
Authors: Bill Bonner, Addison Wiggin
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publication Date: November 2005
ISBN: 0-471-73902-2
Click Here to Purchase

What readers are saying:

“En Vino Veritas?”

I read this tag team of financial prognisticators’ first book, Financial Reckoning Day, and LOVED it. Well, loved it in the way you can love a book that tells you history is all for naught and the financial world as we know it is coming to an end (at least they smiled when they said that, in a bemused kind of way).

But it’s my understanding these guys wrote that book and some of this one while over in France (they’re also the team behind the Daily Reckoning ezine, which I also read). There must be something in the wine over there that makes you see a little more deeply into things than most are prone to here in the States. Or maybe it’s the distance from their homeland (they’re both American) that gives them perspective.

Because I found Empire of Debt, which I just got and finished, nearly as eye-opening as the discussion they’d already started in the last book. In short, easy credit and wild spending will get us in the end. Already, it’s nipping at our heels. Even while most of us, right on up to the powers that be — who should be exercising a little more caution, but instead happen to be the worse over-spenders of them all — refuse to pay attention to the message.

But it’s there in the history books. And it’s in this one, which you could call a kind of history lesson as much as you could call it a forecast for things to come. Great material and well done. Definitely worth a read for anyone (smart) who cares about the future of the world economy.

Jack T. (Philadelphia, PA)
November 10, 2005

“Straight Talk From The Daily Reckoning Duo”

Straight talk. That’s what this follow up to Financial Reckoning Day is all about. Most people don’t like to hear bad news… they can’t handle life’s economic truths… especially during the time of a bubble. Most would rather live in denial and be secure in their warm falsehoods, such as: real estate will only go up, stocks will only rise and inflation will remain stagnant. But authors Bonner and Wiggin shine a light on the nation’s economy that is rarely seen in today’s media. They expose the delusions our government is operating under and explain how it will erode your portfolio – unless immediate action is taken.

Empire of Debt is best described as ironically humorous… scornful… mocking… its conclusions are based in historical reasoning which read in a clear and consistent manner. Look at this exchange from the book:

“What should an investor do to protect himself,” our friend asked.

“Buy gold.”

“Gold? What a strange idea. I haven’t heard anyone mention gold in many years. It seems so out-of-date. I didn’t think anyone bought gold anymore.”

“That’s why you should buy it.”

It’s clear thinking like this that you don’t find today… (unless you subscribe to their e-letter called The Daily Reckoning – it’s written in the same vein.) Empire of Debt is a wry pleasure to read. I recommend this book highly.

P. Delong (San Francisco, CA)
November 14, 2005