Two Strong "Buy" Recommendations

Rainy Vancouver weather creates ample opportunities to catch up with that ever growing pile of books next to me. The troubles at Bear Stearns and new figures confirming the down trend in housing should not come as a surprise to readers of Michael Panzner's latest book "Financial Armageddon" that warns us all of the dramatic paradigm shift that will lead to a major depression. Panzner paints an extremely pessimistic picture of the times to come. The page-turner concludes that a downturn in housing is only the primer for an avalaunch of worse developments to come. Panzner, a Wall Street veteran of 25 years, does an excellent job on detailing the coming full blown depression - I agree on that. What is missing, though, is a chapter on how we could turn the tiller around. This is no blame as this is probably the hardest part for all those concerned with markets and the economy.
An other book I thoroughly enjoyed on the weekend is not exactly new and had topped bestseller rankings several years ago. In "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" author John Perkins spills the beans and tells that the world works the way many have always suspected. According to him loans to the developing world never had another reason than to keep a country servile to the wishes of its American masters. Perkins published a sequel this month, titled "The Secret of the American Empire," which will be part of my next order.
And if you ever wondered whether the president-in-charge's policy has a predecessor in the past I recommend to read "Leviathan" by Thomas Hobbes which is a 356 year old blueprint for conservative governments more concerned with upholding the current system of authority than in promoting democracy. And yes, according to Hobbes there is a set of divine laws that should be followed by everybody. Religious freedom was as much as a topic then as it is now.