America's Financial Apocalypse: How to Profit from the Next Great Depression (Condensed Edition)

For more than two decades, numerous experts have predicted a major depression in America. Many of these forecasts were written in the early 90s as an aftershock of the 87 Crash. While most ignored these warnings, cautious investors withdrew from the capital markets. But the expected turmoil never appeared, at least not for over a decade. In the mid-90s, the Internet was released. Soon, hundreds of companies sought to harness this new technology. By 1999, the Internet stock bubble had swollen beyond belief, and everyone wanted a piece of the action. And we all remember what happened at the start of the new millennium. While this correction revealed the most recent illusions embedded within the economy, it s only a prelude of what to expect in the coming years. Today, economics control the investment cycle rather than hype generated by Wall Street. Accordingly, Washington can only hide the realities of America s decline for so long before the truth is revealed. Currently, we are in the middle stages of a secular bear market that began in 2001. Upon examination of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since 1900, it is clear that the stock market must correct downward in order to compensate for the spectacular appreciation of the 90s; a period fueled by excess consumption. Today we see that competitive forces from abroad are much more influential than in the past. In the mid-1990s, President Clinton signed off on NAFTA and the World Trade Organization, promising free trade would deliver better jobs and higher wages for all. But for the majority of Americans, the opposite has occurred. America entered the free trade paradigm as a losing participant from the start since all other nations place the burden of healthcare and pension costs with the government. While it still remains as the centerpiece for the global economy, America now relies on record debt to maintain its status as the world s strongest consumer marketplace.