Book review: Aftershock!

First and foremost, if you don't really understand where the economy has been and where it's soon heading, and my blog isn't heading (it's more complete the this book), read this book. It is quite clear and accurate for people who don't know anything about finance or economics. That said, I have some specific criticisms of the book.

When I was reading the book for a while I thought it was a very great favor to the average person to have it explained so simply and pretty much without jargon or the assumption that people understand credit default swaps or fractional reserve banking. Then I came to two parts that stunned me.

1. They clearly explain (VERY vaguely) that there will be a total meltdown of everything but that it will all be very orderly and peaceful and there will be no real problems: no violence, riots, food lines, wars, persecution, high crime, rise of dictators, etc.

That is frankly a hallucination. In order to understand so well what is going on they had to have studied previous crises, which means they understand full well that all of those things are ALWAYS inseparable from the crisis itself. It is simply the other side of the same coin. I would defy the authors to cite one serious economic crisis ever that wasn’t messy like that.

So then my question was, “Since it’s obvious to anyone that the violence, crime, and messiness is an inevitable part of the process, are they actually insane, or are they lying to people?” In other words, why would they say that this one time everything will be peachy. They do say that. They say categorically that there WILL NOT BE messiness. So I started looking at the tone and slant of the whole thing. They claim to be presenting “just the facts ma’am.” In fact, they philosophize a lot, including whole chapters about how you should feel about it and do about it in terms of coping. That’s hardly just facts.

2. Next I came to the part where they say the US will come out of a global collapse the best, then Europe, then less developed countries. Their rationale is that “we are so rich to start with.” That is frankly idiotic. It doesn’t pass the most basic smell test in terms of economics or common sense. It has been often pointed out by economists that a serious meltdown ultimately hurts the most developed countries most. The reason is very simple. If an African villager grows their own food, has goats, built their own house from local materials, and draws water from the town well, how are they affected at all by the stock and bond markets melting down? On the opposite end of the spectrum, how many of the things in your house right now could you produce yourself? Of the furniture, electricity, heat, food, clean water, medicines, etc., how much could you produce tomorrow? I’d guess close to zero.

The authors admit that half of all businesses will go bankrupt, but refuse to allow that it will mean the collapse of distribution systems and credit. Without those, all of the businesses (stores) that all those businesses providing distribution and credit serve have nothing to sell. Due to modern “just in time” inventory (meaning a very minimal amount of inventory and maximum integration with the businesses providing distribution and credit), stores, pharmacies, gas stations and the like will run out of things to sell in 3-5 days. Then they have none. Then what?

Overall, I think they present the facts of where we’ve been and where we’re going quite well and accurately. But, they are actually presenting an ideology in a very, very disguised way, which is pretty effective. And the presentation is very incomplete.

INCOMPLETE/ MISSING

1. What actually happens in real life during a currency collapse/ hyperinflation (ultimately the same thing). They present a very fuzzy fantasia version of it, sort of like a picnic where it rained a little bit and you forgot the mustard.
2. Discussion about how most major governments have for the last two years done virtually everything possible to make things worse and set the problem in stone. They claim Reagan somehow caused this problem and it has been inevitable since then. That’s too silly to seriously critique it. Reagan’s deficits were microscopic compared to Obama’s. Of course, what made it inevitable and unfixable was the actions of the last 18 months. Until then it was very serious and entrenched. The root causes go back to things that happened in 1992, 1995, 1999, and during Bush junior.
3. Discussion of how the richest suffer most and why – distribution and credit being the backbone of a modern economy. When those go, every single thing in modern life disappears within a couple of weeks. We see this in modern currency collapses all the time.
4. The central role and miserable track record of the nitwits at the Federal Reserve.
5. I wouldn’t mind seeing a chapter on who has set up all the events to make both recent crises happen and what it is they are after/ why they would want to do it (in their own words). If you still don't believe that this was set up in order to have this collapse that the left is so ecstatic about ("Once in a lifetime opportunity."), let me know and I can set you on the path to finding decades of speeches and statements where they talked about how they were going to do this and why.

THEIR IDEOLOGY COMES THROUGH

1. Page 198 People only want to believe in Armageddon scenarios not because history irrefutably proves that it will happen, or because six European countries are on fire already, but because we’re too immature and backward to accept “fundamental change” of everything. Where have we heard about the need for that before? Hmmm.
2. It’s a big change, but it’s nothing to worry about.
3. We need to just trust the government to take care of things. We need to get past the immature desire to be angry at the government.
4. The best is yet to come, after the “fundamental change.”
5. We really shouldn’t be tempted to go backwards to the things that work. This is the evolution of man to a higher state; you can’t go backwards, even if it’s to tried and true things.
6. We just plain need a single worldwide currency (which means totally integrated economy and banking and control and central bank and on and on). It will “solve” everything.
7. Page 187 A wise and brave president could collapse the bubble now in order to “save” us.

This nonsense is very typical, middle of the road New Age Marxist rubbish. The government is your friend. A one-world government would be great. We just need to “transform” to a higher state of being that is much poorer and controlled by the government. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

I mean, why would anyone want to go back to the things that work when we can all go through unspeakable suffering in order to live like people did a hundred years ago, but with a one-world tyrannical government? It’s a New Age version of utopia/hell. Any questions on that topic, just start researching anywhere with New Age, the age of aquarius, the millenium, Luciferianism, etc. and it'll become crystal clear.