• The Demise of the Dollar... and Why It's Great For Your Investments (Demise of the Dollar & Why It's Even Better for Your Investments)
• Financial Reckoning Day: Surviving the Soft Depression of the 21st Century

In Empire of Debt, maverick financial writers Bill Bonner and Addison Wiggin provide you with the first in-depth look at how the American character has shifted to accommodate its new imperial role; how we have abandoned the private virtues of personal liberty, economic freedom, and fiscal restraint; and how the government has gained control of public life and the economy.
Many Americans have resisted the notion that their country is an imperial power. The idea seems to contradict the values of the Republic and its Founding Fathers. But in Empire of Debt, prominent financial analysts Bill Bonner and Addison Wiggin argue passionately that not only is the United States an empire, but it is also one whose end is coming soon. Bonner and Wiggin are the brains behind www.dailyreckoning.com, an iconoclastic and irreverent market advisory service that has long raised concerns about American indebtedness and warned of a looming dollar crisis. In Empire of Debt, a sequel to their earlier doom-and-gloom book Financial Reckoning Day, they elaborate on their argument that the U.S. economy is about to implode.

Bonner and Wiggin enumerate a long list of chronic ailments that imperil the American financial system--a massive trade deficit, soaring personal and government debt, a housing bubble, runaway military expenditures. These problems "hardly disturb the sleep of the imperial race," the authors write. "[But] all empires must pass away." Bonner and Wiggin argue that American imperial delusions are similar to the fantasies that fueled the dot-com market mania. They recommend readers buy gold as insurance in the event of a financial crisis. Empire of Debt flounders when discussing how America indebted itself; the authors blame the Federal Reserve Board's low interest rates but gloss over the fact that rates were slashed because the U.S. teetered on the brink of deflation in 2002 and 2003 (a topic they give more attention to in Financial Reckoning Day). As hardcore free-marketeers, Bonner and Wiggin also seem to long for the pre-welfare days of the 1920s but forget how that period's policies led to the Great Depression. That said, Empire of Debt contains many revelations that will open eyes. --Alex Roslin

Customer Rating:
Summary: Economics with a Flair of Irony
Comment: I love this book. I must have read it thru ten times already.

Don't let the title scare you. Bonner and Wiggin bring a dull subject to life with an irreverent but refreshing take on history.

"Would the nation be better off if Lincoln had not slaughtered so many Southerners?" they ask. "Would world history have been worse if Wilson had not meddled in World War 1."

Political correctness is cast aside. Party propaganda is ignored. National heroes get skewered. "The most popular American presidents were those who stole most beautifully," they intone, describing the logic of democratic larceny. These guys love to poke fun at pompous politicians.

The authors do get serious. After relating the rise and demise of past empires, they report that America is headed for the same fate. She has moved away from her founding principles, away from the freedoms of republic and into the clutches of empire.

With the inexorable rise of the state come delusions of grandeur and pseudo patriotism. Government intrusion crowds out free enterprise. Civil liberties are tossed in favor of fast money. Original thought gives way to corporate cool. History is relegated to the dustbin.

We are consumed with the running of empire. We mind everyone's business but our own. We shred the Constitution for wars without end.

Wave good-bye to the American Republic. Say hello to the Empire of Debt.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Money
Comment: If you want to know what is going on in the world of money today, here is the book to read. Very well written. It describes in detail and easy understandable form the diease of todays financial world. If everybody would have read this book two years ago it would have protected a lot of people from personal loss or bankruptcy. Thank you for speaking the uncomfortable truth.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The shock value of this true book makes it a gripper and an epic classic
Comment: THE EMPIRE BUSTING BUBBLES;
Empire of Debt by Bill Bonner and Addison Wiggin
Page 48; in 1989, "American democratic imperialism triumphed unmistakably against its adversary-the Evil Empire. The Good Empire was the last one standing; God had shined its light on us and would never turn it off.
Many people said many dumb things in the twentieth century..."
The shock value of this true book makes it a gripper and an epic classic.
Page 317-318; "The oldest generation of Americans remembers the Great Depression. They borrowed reluctantly, saved eagerly, and made the United States the Greatest power on earth. Their children still talked their parents' talk, but didn't mind walking off in a different direction when the wind was at their backs. And their grandchildren? The newest generation seems to have no regard whatever for the virtues of their grandparents or the futures of their grand children. They disregard the wisdom of the dead, and load up the unborn with debt."

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Epic Financial Crisis
Comment: I enjoyed this book. Mr. Bill Bonner is too political for me and sometimes he's just trying to be cute, but overall I enjoyed reading the book and I personally like the newletters put out by Mr. Bonner's Agora Inc. I am a paid subscriber to some of these news letter which gives good investment advice. Regards, Keith Renick, Peachtree City, Ga.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A witty book on finance and economics
Comment: It's rare that a book on the topic of deficits, consumer spending, economic growth, and globalization would also be this entertaining. Bonner and Wiggin have it right about the American empire: it is an empire of debt. As such, it is unsustainable.

Some reviewers here seem to think it is wrong to repeat the key ideas of a book. If these ideas had not been elaborated upon in different ways, you probably would've missed them.

Some see this book as too 'gloomy'. I understand. But surely it's better to try to see things as they are, rather than as you wish them to be.

Regarding gold, it seems clear that under a full-reserve gold standard, the kinds of financial chicanery that created this massive bubble would be impossible. (There will always be cons and hustles in finance, but they would be marginal rather than central to the system).

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