A warning to investors that “the game is rigged” against them by cheating capital markets.
Former Goldman Sachs investment banker Talbott (How I Predicted the Global Economic Crisis: The Most Amazing Book You'll Never Read, 2011, etc.) lays out why he thinks investors in traditional securities—stocks and bonds—are wasting their time and money extending the life span of a system that guarantees losses. The author directs most of his ire at the international spread of indebtedness, as well as the corruption in finance and politics represented by the combination of money and lobbying. “There can be no true reform in the economics sphere,” he writes, “until we reform our system of money and politics, until we outlaw lobbyists.” He isn't alone in arguing that reform efforts have been undermined by lobbyists bought and paid for by banks to protect activities that will cause another crisis. In that sense, Talbott emerges as part conspiracy theorist, part supporter of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and part supporter of a third-party insurgency against the established order. Believing that expansion of the Federal Reserve's balance sheet and quantitative easing will sooner or later unleash a wild inflation, the author recommends investors seek to preserve their assets through defensive measures. His favorite means include borrowing long term at today's historically low interest rates to purchase residential real estate and gold—though he cautions that “you probably don't want to put everything you own into gold right now.”
A nonconformist approach to finance and investing that should appeal to politically minded contrarians.
