As a reward to readers, this blog is offering a free copy of The Cost of Capitalism by Robert J. Barbera, an engaging and thought-provoking account of the causes and signs of the bubbles and financial crises that have repeatedly plagued our economy, including the 2008 crash. His argument is that such crises are part of the capitalist system and are bound to re-occur. The book got very positive reviews on Amazon and I really like it too.
The book helps the individual investor to detect the indicators like rising debt levels and over-confidence that show a crisis is building. Perhaps this can allow preventative action ... though timing when to get out and back in has been shown to be extremely difficult. (Such is not Barbera's goal anyway. His thrust is to explain and suggest policy to prevent future crisis rather than to tell the investor how to protect him/herself.) Building a diversified portfolio that can weather market storms, or perhaps we should say, hurricanes is probably a more realistic objective. At the least, we can learn to bear such crises with slightly better equanimity.
To be in the random draw for the book, leave a comment with some unique name (i.e. don't comment as "anonymous"). The draw closes a week today, on Thursday, November 19th at midnight EST. The winner will be announced on the blog with a request to email a mailing address and the book will then be shipped out to any Canadian address.
In the comment, if you are so inclined, share your opinion and say what is currently your single greatest investment worry - be it another crisis, inflation, government deficits and likely rising taxes, very low growth and future returns etc.
A thank you to McGraw-Hill Canada for the complimentary copy.
6 comments:
Thank you for the opportunity. This looks like an interesting book.
I am not very worried by nature (on a macro level at least), but I do wonder about the huge government debt as well as what will happen with our taxes...
I wonder if the next threat is the effect of rising interest rates in light of this year's heightened real estate activity - how significant will it become? Would it produce an aftershock when mortgage payments are suddenly less affordable..?
Thanks for a great blog!
My worry is that the next asset bubble will be bigger than the most recent one.
My financial concern at the moment centres around the fact that I'm a year farther out from retiring than I planned. While I had targeted the end of 2009 (at age 60), that's not going to happen, thanks to last year's meltdown. Now I need to keep working for another year or two, and investing conservatively to ensure I have enought to cover my retirement needs. I'm hoping things stay on a fairly even keel once I do retire ... but there's no guarantees, are there?
Thanks for the blog, your writings cause me a lot of thinking.
I am not a great worrier, howevre I do think about what effect all us baby boomers will have on the markets when we start cashing out our investments to pay for daily living upon retirement.
The draw is done. Congratulations Lyne!! You are the winner of the book. Please contact me by email at jean.lesperance at googlemail.com with your postal details so I can send you the book.
Thanks to all for their investment threat suggestions. Good ideas for future posts on what an investor can do to protect against them.
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