BERNARD MELTZER SOLVES YOUR MONEY PROBLEMS: Borrowing, buying, and investment strategies to profit from inflation

by Bernard Meltzer ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 1982

Money problems? Borrow to acquire big-ticket items--such assets as a college education or a house--and repay the obligation in depreciating dollars. Syndicated columnist and ABC radio advisor Meltzer has no interest, that is, in such mundane recourses as budgeting, retirement planning, or even investments as such. Though he first spins out his own life-story (Polish immigrant parents, Lower East Side) as the American-Dream-come-true, he's not advocating Alger-like industriousness. The advice is to incur debt and profit from inflation. So Meltzer reviews possible loan sources--from credit cards to pawn shops to second mortgages. . . even unto brokerage houses, since they advance credit in the form of margin on eligible securities holdings. But, it turns out, Meltzer equates stock (and commodity) market commitments with ""playing the games in Las Vegas or Atlantic City."" At the same time, he overlooks Wall Street's hottest new service: cash-management accounts that give individuals immediate access to their full borrowing power via special check/credit cards. He does provide step-by-step instructions, however, on filling out loan applications and detailed guidance (one-third of the book) on acquiring a dwelling-place or a car. (In the latter case, with the pros and cons of leasing vs. purchasing.) Most of this, of course, may be ill-advised: the smart money seems to be girding for disinflation; swollen housing values are collapsing in the face of the price concessions required to close almost any property sale. Imprudent counsel all around, then--of which even Meltzer's following ought to beware.

Pub Date: June 21, 1982

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1982

Categories: NONFICTION