The Ultimate Money Guide for Bubbles, Busts, Recession and Depression E-Book

Martin D. Weiss

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 463

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Updated version of the bestselling book on how to grow and protect wealth in difficult economic times

Having an effective financial plan has always been important; today, it's crucial. In The Ultimate Money Guide for Bubbles, Busts, Recession, and Depression—the updated and revised edition of the bestseller, The Ultimate Depression Survival Guide—author Martin D. Weiss shows readers how to create a safe and effective financial plan for today's unpredictable economic environment.

• Explains why the U.S. economy continues to slump, and how persistently high unemployment and increasing government spending could lead to a far worse, double-dip recession
• Details how investors are missing opportunities by failing to look at overseas investments, specifically in Asia and Latin America
• Reveals what everyone should be doing now to protect their savings, investments, and jobs

The Ultimate Ultimate Money Guide for Bubbles, Busts, Recession, and Depression answers the questions readers have about the new challenges of the "new normal," while also offering strategies to cope with the credit crunch, housing bust, and decline of the U.S. dollar.

Leseprobe

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1: Why the Tough Times Are Just Beginning!

A Permanent Recession?

Unprecedented Risks and Weaknesses

Massive Government Actions to Forestall the Debt Crisis

Chapter 2: The Government Declares War on the Financial Crisis

Trashing the Past

Chapter 3: Wall Street Deceptions, Cover-Ups, and Lies

Ratings Fiasco 1: How Deceptive Ratings Entrapped Nearly Two Million Americans in Failed Insurance—and Why It Could Happen to You!

Ratings Fiasco 2: How Wall Street’s “Research” Duped Millions of Investors—and Why You Face Similar Dangers Today

Ratings Fiasco 3: The Giant Debt Crisis of the Late 2000s

Lessons to Learn and Never Forget

Chapter 4: Housing: How to Escape the Greatest Bust of All Time

Powerful Force 1: Debt

Powerful Force 2: Investor Mania

Powerful Force 3: Government-Bred Monopolies, Corruption, Fraud, and Cover-Ups

Powerful Force 4: Consumer Deceptions

Powerful Force 5: Collapse!

Important Lessons to Learn Before It’s Too Late

Chapter 5: Common Stocks: How to Avoid Big Risks and Boost Returns

Does the Stock Market Fall in a Straight Line?

Warning: Don’t Let Your Broker Talk You Out of Doing What’s Right for You

Chapter 6: How Safe Is Your Bank?

Dangerous Derivatives

What the Heck Is a Systemic Meltdown Anyhow? And Why Is It Possible?

Didn’t They Bail Out All the Big Banks in Trouble? Why Can’t They Continue Doing the Same Thing Forever?

Can a Banking Shutdown Really Happen in Modern Times?

How Would a Banking Shutdown Affect Me?

How Can I Avoid These Huge Risks?

Chapter 7: How to Find Safe Insurance Companies

The Six Steps to Finding the Strongest Companies

Chapter 8: How to Shop for the Best Life Insurance

Chapter 9: How to Find the Best Annuities

Question 1: What Is an Annuity, Anyhow?

Question 2: Do I Really Need an Annuity?

Question 3: To Annuitize or Not to Annuitize?

Question 4: Can You Give Me an Example of a Typical Immediate Annuity?

Question 5: How Can I Make Sure My Insurance Company Doesn’t Die before I Do?

Question 6: I Know There Are Rip-Offs Out There. But How Do I Avoid Them?

Chapter 10: The Safest and Most Liquid Place for Your Cash

Four Additional Advantages of Treasury-Only Money Market Funds

Why Are Treasury Bills Safer than Bank CDs?

Aren’t You Ignoring the Government’s Own Sinking Finances?

How Might I Cash in My Treasuries During a Banking Shutdown?

Suppose the Government Devalues the Dollar?

Chapter 11: All-Weather Investments for the Best and the Worst of Times

The Advantages (and Pitfalls) of Exchange-Traded Funds

Protection against Stock Market Declines

Protection against Real Estate Declines

Chapter 12: How to Profit Directly from a Market Decline

Large Profit Potential with Inverse ETFs

Chapter 13: How to Continue Making Money Even with the Worst Disasters

You Never Touch a Single Stock or Bond

You Benefit from Unrivaled Liquidity

Currencies Are an Entirely Separate Asset Class

There’s Always at Least One Major Currency Going Up

Currencies Tend to Move in Long-Term, Sweeping Trends

Inflation versus Deflation in the Currency Market

The Most Convenient Vehicle: Currency ETFs

Chapter 14: When to Buy the Best Bargains of the Century

How to Recognize the Signs of a Bottom in the U.S. Economy and Financial Markets

Do Everything You Can to Not Miss This Opportunity

Chapter 15: Bonds: Your First Great Income Opportunity

The Interest-Rate Boomerang

The Great Buying Opportunity in Highest Quality Long-Term Bonds

Chapter 16: Dividends: Your Second Great Income Opportunity

The Power of Dividends

Two Disadvantages of Dividend Stocks

Chapter 17: The Great Fork in the Road: Inflation or Deflation?

In the Next Stage, Which Is Most Likely to Prevail—Deflation or Inflation?

What Is Your Best Protection from Inflation?

When Will Be the Best Time to Buy More Gold?

What Are the Differences between Gold Investing in the 1930s and in the 2000s?

Why Can’t Governments Just Create Inflation?

What about a Global Devaluation of the World’s Major Currencies?

What about the Possibility of Massive Hyperinflation?

Chapter 18: The Demise of the Dollar?

The Next Great Battle

Investor Power on Wall Street

Investor Power in Washington

Investor Power in Washington: A 1980 Case Study

Actual Meeting in 1980, Fictional Dialogue

The Government’s Last Rescue

Chapter 19: The Foundation for Recovery

Phase 1: Acceptance

Phase 2: Public Admission

Phase 3: Action!

Tough Consequences

Chapter 20: Future Fortunes

Notes

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Index

Copyright © 2011 by Martin D. Weiss. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

Substantial portions of this book were taken from an earlier edition, The Ultimate Depression Survival Guide: Protect Your Savings, Boost Your Income, and Grow Wealthy Even in the Worst of Times, published by John Wiley & Sons in 2009.

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ISBN 978-1-118-01134-8

For my wife and son, Elisabeth and Anthony

INTRODUCTION

Never before in your lifetime has your money, your home, your retirement, and your entire financial future seen greater turmoil!

You’ve already witnessed the worst real estate disaster, the largest bank failures, and the biggest losses of wealth since the Great Depression.

You’ve seen America’s most powerful corporate executives forecasting disaster, confessing they’re going bankrupt, and begging Congress for massive bailouts.

You’ve seen our government take gigantic, radical steps to end the crisis and bring about a recovery, only to create new bubbles and risk larger busts.

You’ve seen the U.S. Federal Reserve do something it had never done before—print massive amounts of paper money to try to pump up the economy.

You must recognize it’s high time to do something to protect yourself.

In this book, you will learn how. I give you step-by-step instructions to avoid the dangers, get your money to safety, and secure your family’s financial well-being. I explain what’s likely to happen next, how far real estate and stocks could fall, how long the crisis can last, how much government rescues can or cannot actually achieve, and how to know when a true recovery is about to begin.

Best of all, I show you how to separate the weak from the strong with our Weiss ratings, the only ratings that cover all U.S. financial sectors with no conflicts of interest.

And as a special extra, I show how to turn this massive crisis into an equally massive opportunity. While most people cringe in fear of real estate declines, you can turn them into unprecedented bargains. While most investors run away from stock market crashes, you can transform them into profit opportunities. Instead of the confusion and paralysis that overcomes most Americans, you will have clarity of vision and a solid plan of action. Instead of losing a lot of money, you can grow your wealth significantly.

Surviving—and thriving—during this crisis is not rocket science. You don’t have to forecast the future. You don’t even need investing experience.

The simple secret is to throw out your prejudices, start with a clean slate, and then follow common sense. Right now, that means taking a cold, hard look at the events around you and recognizing that the value of your home, your 401(k), and even some of your supposedly safe investments can continue to run into trouble. You have the power to stop the bloodletting; there’s no law, rule, or ethic that requires you to sit there quietly or accept financial punishment passively. You have easy ways to get your money to safety without delay and without remorse. Plus, you have every right to use the crisis to grow your wealth—not only for your family, children, and grandchildren—but also to do your part for the future of the U.S. economy.

Our Weiss ratings identified the vulnerable companies most likely to fail—and most likely to thrive. Plus, I warned about this very crisis in my 2003 book, Crash Profits, and I have continued to do so in my Money and Markets e-letter ever since. I have nagged, cajoled, and shouted this message from the rooftops. But it has given me no pleasure to see my warnings come true. I have dreaded the bubbles and busts as often as I have predicted them. I prayed they would not come to pass. But now that they’re here, I have a new prayer:

That you are, or soon will be, out of danger and ready for the worst.

That the worst will strike swiftly and end swiftly.

That, when we hit bottom, no matter how ugly the future may appear, you, we, and many others will have the fortitude to reinvest, help get our country back on its feet, and move on to better times.

Just promise me one thing: No matter how dark a tunnel may seem, never forget it is not the end of the world. Our country has been through worse before, and we survived. We will survive today’s tough times too.

But you cannot stand idly by. At this landmark turning point in our history, the choices you make today could determine your fate—and the destiny of everyone that depends on you—for decades to come. Your decisions now could make the difference between a lifetime of struggle and a successful career; becoming a ward of the state or retiring comfortably; risking poverty-stricken illness or enjoying wealth and health.

Whatever your choices may be, do not procrastinate. And whenever you take action, don’t do so in haste. Your response to the current crisis—or any new crisis that may ensue—should be both prompt and planned, both bold and prudent.

This book is your action plan.

In Chapters 1 and 2, I show you why tough times are likely to continue, and I walk you through your first and most urgent priority—to reduce debt and build the biggest pile of cash possible.

A major continuing source of financial difficulties is Wall Street deceptions, cover-ups, and lies. So before you make one more decision about your investments or your financial future, you must be aware of this hidden danger, the subject of Chapter 3.

Next, in Chapters 4 through 10, I guide you through the many land mines still threatening the average investor—in the housing market, common stocks, banks, and insurance companies—while guiding you to safe alternatives.

Chapter 11 is dedicated to protection. You may have real estate you cannot sell or a pension fund beyond your control. You may have bonds that have no market or a business that continues to provide income. All could be assets that you must keep, and yet, at the same time, all are assets that could be vulnerable to losses in any future decline. In this chapter, I give you a practical solution to help untie this knotty dilemma.

Chapter 12 guides you to a major profit opportunity with a plan to make money directly from a market decline; and Chapter 13 shows you how to continue making money even with the worst disasters.

But your largest payoff of all will come when the price of many assets hits rock bottom and it’s time to buy the bargains of the century. Recognizing that bottom when it comes can open up the opportunity to greatly boost your income, buy some of the best assets in the world for a pittance, and stake out a high ground for yourself, your children, and generations to come. In Chapters 14 through 17, I show you when and how.

Just remember that none of this is predetermined. At times, the tsunami of crisis may seem unstoppable. But ultimately, when the causes of the crisis have finally been largely removed, it will finally open up a window for you, me, and our leaders to choose our own destiny. Chapters 18 and 19 represent my best effort to define what I think our worst and best choices will be.

Last, as a true, enduring recovery gets under way, it will be time to expand your horizons and look for new opportunities to grow wealth. When you read this book, it may still be too soon to buy many of the best investments. But it won’t be too soon to cast a glance into the future and see how some of the world’s largest fortunes are likely to be made, the subject of Chapter 20.

If you have read my 2009 book, you will see that this book thoroughly updates every chapter and adds several new ones—on the Federal Reserve, on insurance, and on other key topics. So much has changed in just one year. Yet, the broad trends and conclusions have not.

In this volatile new world, the key to your success will be to stay up to date with change. And with so much changing so quickly, I have decided to give you a free service to alert you by e-mail to any upgrades or downgrades in our ratings of your company. To sign up, go to www.weisswatchdog.com.

Plus, we promise to keep you up to date daily by our e-letter. At critical turning points, especially in the real estate market or the stock market, these alerts could make the difference between missing an important danger or opportunity . . . and taking appropriate action at the right time.

For your free sign-up, visit www.moneyandmarkets.com/alert. Or send your name and e-mail address directly to me at [email protected]. If you do not have e-mail, and would like to receive one of the free reports mentioned in this book, call 800-814-3029. Or mail your request to Martin D. Weiss, c/o Ultimate Money Guide, 15430 Endeavour Drive, Jupiter, FL 33478.

Good luck and God bless!

Martin D. Weiss

Palm Beach Gardens

November 9, 2010

[email protected]

CHAPTER 1

WHY THE TOUGH TIMES ARE JUST BEGINNING!

Despite the greatest government rescue operations of all time, America continues to suffer through the toughest of times.

The place is every home, business, and community. The time is now.

And the pattern is now clear: First a great speculative bubble . . . then a great bust . . . followed by massive government stimulus, bailouts, and money printing . . . and then . . . still another, even greater bubble and bust.

When all is said and done, some people make fortunes. But millions of average hard-working people lose their jobs, get evicted from their homes, sink deeper into debt, and even risk abject poverty.

Wall Street and Washington talk about recovery. But for nearly everyone on Main Street, the bubble-and-bust cycle is a roller coaster that begins to feel more like an on-again-off-again depression with each passing day.

No one under the age of 80 has ever had personal experience with a similar episode.

Nor have I. I was born in 1946, just as we were leaving the final vestiges of America’s Great Depression behind. I’ve studied that historic period with books, charts, and numbers, but that’s not the same thing. I spent years in Japan before and after their 20-year depression, but that, too, was different.

What truly brings me close to a visceral understanding of bubbles, busts, recessions, and depressions is the half century I shared with my father, J. Irving Weiss, one of the few economists who not only advised investors during the Great Depression, but actually predicted it.

Dad was so proud of that unusual feat that he began telling me stories about it when I was five years old. Vicariously, I lived through the bubble of the Roaring Twenties, the Crash of 1929, the massive bank failures of the 1930s, and the multiple great recessions that ensued. Through Dad’s teachings, I felt as though I was there with him when investors lost fortunes, when we hit rock bottom in 1933, when the economy rallied, fell again, and then finally enjoyed a true recovery; when old fortunes were lost and new ones were made.

Dad was not only a loving father, but also my mentor, partner, and best friend. I wish he could be here today to write to you directly and help you get through these tough times personally. But as soon as I was old enough, I helped him write his investment books; and in 1971, soon after I founded my own investment research and ratings company, he helped me write mine. Although he’s gone, I can feel his vibrant energy and calming spirit beside me; and in almost every chapter of this book, I will let him speak to you posthumously.