Concrete economic suggestions for staying afloat, geared toward more experienced investors.
Vanclef utilizes his expertise as a financial planner and investment strategist to offer suggestions on how to invest wisely no matter the status of one’s portfolio or the economic forecast.
Terms like REIT, asset class diversification and capital preservation don’t necessarily roll off the tongue. If these words read like Greek to you, then the book won’t be appropriate. However, those who aren’t financial novices–who have some money in the markets and are looking for a better way to ride out this rough economic time–may be able to use the book’s useful tips and research suggestions. Vanclef writes in a straightforward manner, but he packs a lot into this slight volume. Parts of The Wealth Code are rather dry, especially those involving the nitty gritty of certain classes of investments. Though he sometimes uses simple illustrations and short anecdotes for further explication, the author would have done well to include more. As with financial advice, Vanclef points out that his suggestions are not right for everyone, but still are useful as a jumping-off point. The author’s main thesis is diversification, and he likens a person’s investment portfolio to a wooden table. If it has only one leg, everything is fine, as long as nothing jars that leg. With multiple table legs, if one of goes missing, the table will still be upright. Vanclef sees similar benefits to spreading out one’s money. If you have some cash in real estate, some in stocks and some in oil or gas investments, your portfolio could still be growing even if one of your investment classes goes south. While this seems like common sense, most people have all their money tied to the stock market, creating an uneven financial foundation. The author takes the reader into the deeper definitions and explanations of investment, and that is the book’s primary value.
Concrete economic suggestions for staying afloat, geared toward more experienced investors.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2009
ISBN: 978-1439254479
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An ultraliberal academic's immodest proposal for a new world socioeconomic order—one appreciably more statist than those envisioned by Plato in his Republic or Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan. Before presenting his against-the-grain initiatives, Block (The Mean Season, 1987, etc.) engages in an extended rant as to how right-wing extremists have falsely convinced large segments of the American electorate that the US government is a malefic vampire sucking the domestic economy's lifeblood. In aid of this arguable premise, the author (Sociology/Univ. of Calif., Davis) cites examples of so-called conventional wisdom he deems irrational, if not mad. Cases in point range from faith in balanced federal budgets, deregulation, free markets, low taxes, and unrestricted trade through an abiding antipathy to activist governance and inflationary procedures. Block dismisses any notion that deficits depress private-sector investment, affect savings rates, or cause other of the financial harms ascribed to them. Getting down to business, Block obligingly furnishes a detailed agenda that could put the country on course toward a practical utopia (a term whose oxymoronic character he concedes). He would make managed trade and fixed currency-exchange rates hallmarks of foreign policy. On the home front, he would introduce wage controls to keep the aggregate compensation of top corporate executives at no more than 25 times that of low-income or jobless individuals and cut the work week (possibly in half). Expressly wary of elitist, individualist entrepreneurs, Block would also use the power of government to encourage establishment of a network of small firms and cooperatives. In time, he asserts, his incentive-free revolution could be taken global. A wish-list tract amounting to the triumph of hope over experience for its trust in the constructive capacities of big government.
Pub Date: Aug. 30, 1996
ISBN: 1-56584-193-X
Page Count: 256
Publisher: The New Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1996
A career technocrat's immensely informative, albeit against- the-grain, analysis of the perceived problems of federal budget deficits. Drawing on more than four decades' experience as a Washington insider (as a senior government economist under seven presidents and as head of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board), Cavanaugh offers a remarkably clear, often engrossing rundown on government finance by setting the record straight on frightening fictions that have become staples of political rhetoric. First off, the author puts paid to any notion that the national debt imposes an unconscionable burden on future generations, arguing that the country owes its grandchildren progress in the utilization of human and material (rather than financial) resources. Nor does he put much stock in the assumption that Big Brother crowds out private investment, because federal deficits tend to be greatest when the domestic economy is slumping and credit demand is low. Cavanaugh also addresses the widely held belief that the national debt's interest costs are unsustainable; while such expenditures are completely uncontrollable, they are manageable, he asserts, concluding that interest should not be included in the federal budget (whose principal purpose is to contain spending). The author goes on to dismiss fears that US debt is enriching either the affluent or foreigners, pointing out most obligations of the Treasury are held by and for the benefit of middle-income Americans. He also shows that there's precious little risk of default by the Social Security trust fund (which has nothing to do with the federal deficit). Cavanaugh finishes with some modest reform proposals, notably, introduction of a system that would make legislators more accountable by subjecting them to the discipline of levying new taxes whenever federal outlays exceeded budgeted receipts. An uncommonly sensible challenge to conventional wisdom on a complex issue that's sure to be a focus of partisan debate in the 1996 presidential election and beyond.
Pub Date: Sept. 9, 1996
ISBN: 0-87584-734-X
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1996
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