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The Ultimate Depression Survival Guide Protect Your Savings Boost Your Income and Grow Wealthy Even in the Worst of Times

The Ultimate Depression Survival Guide Protect Your Savings Boost Your Income and Grow Wealthy Even in the Worst of Times

Having an effective financial and personal plan for the future is now more crucial than ever. And with The Ultimate Depression Survival Guide, readers will quickly learn how to create such a plan. This comprehensive guide was especially designed to help people map out a practical financial plan in this unpredictable economic environment, so that they can stop worrying about their money and just enjoy life. Step by step, Martin Weiss–America’s Consumer Advocate for Financial Safety–introduces, explains, and helps solve many of the new challenges and risks that face millions of Americans. Throughout the book, Weiss provides readers with sound strategies for coping with the credit crunch, housing bust, and decline of the U.S. dollar. The Ultimate Depression Survival Guide also examines important topics that today’s investor must be familiar with–including global investing, foreign currencies, and commodities–if they intend to make it through the decade ahead.

Martin D. Weiss, PhD (Palm Beach, FL), is chairman of The Weiss Group, LLC, which consists of three separate corporations, including Weiss Research, Inc. Weiss Research is dedicated to providing information and tools to help investors make sounder financial decisions and offers its insights on MoneyandMarkets.com. Weiss is the editor of the financial newsletter Safe Money Report, known for its track record in picking major turns in interest rates. He is the author of The Ultimate Safe Money Guide: How Everyone 50 and Over Can Protect, Save, and Grow Their Money (978-0-471-15202-6) and Crash Profits: Make Money When Stocks Sink and Soar (978-0-471-42998-2).

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Full of Realistic and Usefull Ideas, a Great Read!
As an author and magazine publisher myself I can say that I am often subjected to lots of new writing, some good news, some old news and lots of it simply bad news. That being the case I am positively surprised and impressed with how much good information- that seems to be real and “reality based”- Martin D. Weiss has managed to put into his newest work, “The Ultimate Depression Survival Guide”. Sure every single element of advice will never work for every single person, but overall much of the tips, advice, and guidance that the reader gains is serious useable information that can and will soften the blow of our current economy and may very well help those who adhere to it ride the wave much easier.

Great work Martin, and thank you for an overall well written and easy to follow book with some real meaning between the covers. I am honored to have had my book mentioned along with yours in various places, and apparently share some of the same buyers and readers.

Will Estell

Author,

“Wisdom & Wisecracks” series of books.

Oxford, Alabama

5 Stars Do You Want To Survive & Thrive
This author is a wise man, and this book gives you a healthy dose of his wisdom. Will it change your life? Will it help you to prosper during this tough economic period? That all depends on your intensity of studying the material and the attitude you have about your own future.

5 Stars “Don’t’ Look Back” - A Great Guide for Economic Survival
This is a fabulous book. Absolutely great - not filled with the usual tired maxims, Weiss offers unusual strategies. Not to be “doom & gloom” but this writer is calling our current “Recession” the “the Second Great Depression”. Well, whatever we want to call “it”, we are facing some challenges.

Here are some tidbits from this great book:

!) Pay Down Your Mortage - even “Fixed Rate Mortgages” –Even “fixed rate” mortgages are problematic, as “deflation” drags down wages but the payments on the mortgage do not decrease. So pay more than minimum payments.

2) Jobs — Don’t be in a fog if you are employed! Get out of your trance. Keep up-to-date on your company’s financial situation - read & research. In the meantime assess what your company needs and acquire those assets.

3) Housing & Real Estate -”Don’t look back” — Forget what your property was worth at its peak or what you paid for it.” What is the current situation? Look around & do your research.

4) Forget the ‘Government as Savior’ idea— yes, it will help some people, but it will be “spotty”.

5) Selling you Home? Offer an additional bonus commission for agents to get things rolling — If the current commission rate is 6%, offer 8%. Make sure the extra bonus is indicated in the MLS Listing.

6) Watch for Watershed Events to invest. When the government gets out of the “bailout business” (after they realize it didn’t work so well), there may be a ’sea change’ & a good time to find bargains.

5 Stars Good Stuff - Reader Friendly, Practical and Realistic
I’ve been a fan of the Weiss Publications for many years so wasn’t sure this book would have anything new to offer. So often, the books published by those with ongoing newsletters or other online services tend to be increasingly shallow, reprints of information you have encountered repeatedly or– worse of all — shallow promotional tools hyping the sale of their expensive products or service subscriptions.

While the author does indeed have many information products including newsletters etc…he refrains from watering down his content Or shameless promotional efforts throughout. Instead, he delivers delightfuly fresh content, easy to read and relevant.

I read a lot of business books…in fact, I teach business/finance etc at the college level, write and consult on the topic so I’m always in the middle of reading at least one (or more) business books. Here are a few things that set this one apart from the rest…

1. The author is unapologetic about his position. In fact, he publishes his email and contact information right up front so you can write or comment.

2. Accessible. This book is reader friendly and designed to appeal to a wide audience. The advice is do-able and can be easily modified to fit any budget…this is not a book only for those with massive portfolio’s searching for a bigger/better return but truly a survival manual. Those with little money concerned how they will cover the basics are likely to find as much value in the book as those nearing retirement watching their 401k or other investments shrink in recent years.

3. Practical. The advice is meant to take action on…not sell you the next level. Likewise, the information is different from that of the newsletters although regular readers of Martin Weiss will be pleased to find it consistent with his core suggestions and outlook.

Bottom line…whether you grow wealthy or simply preserve your standard of living while others sink this book is well worth the time and effort to review.

4 Stars Did not make me feel happier.
I was unbelievably euphoric after having seen this book available for purchase. You see, I have the unique misfortune of being one of the rare Americans that suffer from depression and lives near a large sinkhole. I was convinced that this book could address both my conditions, depression and depressions. Not only did this book not offer much in terms of depression management (not even a sentence on novel drugs or therapies), it did not even offer up any helpful tips on how to get out of a large sinkholes. As such, I cannot recommend it for those purposes. However, if you are not affected as I am by such conditions, you might consider giving this book a chance.

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Greenspans Bubbles The Age of Ignorance at the Federal Reserve

Greenspans Bubbles The Age of Ignorance at the Federal Reserve

No matter who you are-investor, trader, homeowner, 401(k) holder, or CEO-you are bound to feel the impact of Alan Greenspan’s �Age of Ignorance� for years to come.

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According to MSN Money columnist William A. Fleckenstein, Greenspan’s nearly 19-year career as Federal Reserve Chairman is even worse than anyone imagined. Labeled �Mr. Bubble� by the New York Times, Greenspan was nothing less than a serial bubble blower with a long history of bad decision-making. His famous �Greenspan Put� fueled the perception of a Goldilocks economy-but, as this explosive expos� reveals, the bear has finally caught up with Goldilocks.

. .

Using transcripts of Greenspan’s FOMC meetings as well as testimony before Congress, this eye-opening book delivers a timeline of his most devastating mistakes and weaves together the connection between every economic calamity of the past 19 years:

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• The stock market crash of 1987.
• The Savings And Loan crisis.
• The collapse of Long Term Capital Management.
• The tech bubble of 2000.
• The feared Y2K disaster.
• The credit bubble and real estate crisis of 2007.

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Fleckenstein explains just how far-reaching Greenspan’s mess has been flung, and presents damning evidence that contradicts the former Fed chief’s public naivet� concerning shifts in the market and economy. He also points to a disturbing fact, that throughout his career, Greenspan not only made costly mistakes, but made the same ones-over and over again. And not only was he never able to recognize or admit to those mistakes, he constantly rewrote his own history to justify them.

. .

Greenspan’s Bubbles offers a lock-stock-and-barrel portrait of a flawed but fascinating man whose words and actions have led a whole generation astray, and whose legacy will continue to challenge us in the years ahead.

. . .

User Ratings and Reviews

3 Stars Greenspan to Blame
I’ll go about half way with the reviewers here. Greenspan certainly created a moral hazard in (engineering) the bailout of LTCM. Then, his interest rates, while not causing the housing bubble, certainly made things worse. Overnight interest rates didn’t hit rock bottom until late 2002-early 2003, nearly six years after houses began rising. Houses didn’t pick up steam, however, until 2000 - still three years before the Fed went negative with rates.

While it’s true that (long-term) mortgage rates are set by the free market, the Fed’s short-term rates affect these. Their low rates made it attractive for downstream banks to lend, *overlend* that is. Why not, when you can borrow low and sell higher ? Then, when Greenspan raised interest rates - sharply I might add, he put the screws on those who took out adjustable rate mortgages.

So Greenspan fumbled two big things, already. But there’s more. The icing on the cake was when Greenspan - and the Fed at large - did not regulate banks like they were suppose to. They “didn’t know” what percent of mortgage originations were subprime. And they didn’t check big bank’s “off balance sheet” securities.

I gave the book only three stars because the author goes too far and blames Greenspan for things he wasn’t responsible for. But it’s still a good read for the things that *are* true. Alan Greenspan was probably the worst chairman in the history of the Federal Reserve……

2 Stars pretty shallow
I gave up somewhere in the middle of chapter four. It was just contrasting FOMC comments with Greenspan’s public comments. Anyone that follows markets at even a blog level is already aware of all this. I was hoping for something more in depth about the Fed actions and HOW it affected the economy (not just that bubble boy cut rates and the Nasdaq doubled. We already know this).

2 Stars Unconvincing and unhelpful
I distrust the Federal Reserve system, and I think that Greenspan’s easy money policies predictably harmed responsible investors, but I did not find sound reasoning to confirm those suspicions in Greenspan’s Bubbles.

Fleckenstein makes his subject material accessible to the layperson, but only by presenting a shallow and extremely one-sided viewpoint. He offers little economic insight, and proposes no genuine practical solutions. He exploits the selective memory of angry investors seeking a scapegoat for their losses, who might conveniently fail to recall Greenspan’s famous “irrational exuberance” speech of 1996 or his Fannie & Freddie warning of 2004.

The picture that the book paints of Greenspan’s chairmanship is at least as vague and inconsistent as any picture that Greenspan ever painted of the economy. Moreover, it relies too much on its own questionable selection and interpretation of Greenspan’s statements in order to vilify him.

Graphs and data in general are misused, because no attempt is made to demonstrate that conditions such as they were could have existed only in proximity to a crash. I suspect that one could have used the same methodology in 1960 to construct a similarly compelling stock bubble assertion, and no such crash materialized.

The importance of avoiding bubbles is repeatedly overstated. Everyone has heard the folklore that the 1920’s stock bubble caused the Great Depression, but the prevailing view among economists is that the government’s inept reaction to the ensuing crash played a huge role. Bubbles are certainly costly, but we have to weigh that against the cost of avoiding them, which is grossly understated here.

Indeed, Greenspan did err frequently, and we would prefer that the Fed’s leadership were perfectly infallible and transparent, but God isn’t available for the job, and he too is said to work in mysterious ways. We can quibble over whether the actual inflation rate under Greenspan was 3% or 4%, but we can all agree that it doesn’t come close to the 9% that it averaged under Arthur Burns.

Still, there is probably a kernel of truth here. Unfortunately, rather than presenting a reasonable, balanced case that even without the benefit of hindsight the Fed should have acted differently, Greenspan’s Bubbles resorts to scapegoating and demagogy.

5 Stars Fleck predicted the crisis
I’ve read Fleck since 2001. His insights into the market have been the most useful of anyone around. Sometimes I think he is the only honest guy who works in the world of finance. Actually, I would add Fred Hickey, Jim Rogers and Marc Faber to the list of honest market commentators.

Fleck has saved my family from a lot of financial pain as we were able to avoid the financial crisis.

In this book, he attacks Mr. Greenspan’s revisionist history. It was a gutsy book to write as the Federal Reserve and the dollar standard is at the core of America’s power.

As America starts to ratchet up the printing press you need to understand and pay attention to the Fed. This book is a good primer.

5 Stars HOISTED ON HIS OWN PETARD
This is an excellent little book that doesn’t drown the reader in financial gobbleydigook. Instead, the author, who clearly is not and never has been a fan of Greenspan, let’s his bete noir hang himself with numerous quotes that show beyond any doubt what a clueless, if not spineless, wooley headed theoretician Greenspan was. Of course, we have the pudding he cooked to taste now, and it’s pretty foul. But it shows how powerful PR and propaganda is in bolstering the reputation of a man who never deserved one tenth of his accolades a a brilliant and wise Federal Reserve Chairman. He was to Bernanke what Bush was to Obama, the creator of a God-awful mess who is desperately trying to revise history. What impressed me the most was how often Greenspan defended his inability to predict bubbles; his only approach was the same of a doctor at an autopsy; “Well, whatever it was, it was fatal.”

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Bye Bye Standby BBSBUSA Energy Saving Kit

Bye Bye Standby BBSBUSA Energy Saving Kit

Bye Bye Standby is a brand new energy saving solution designed to reduce the daily energy consumption of electrical devices. Bye Bye Standby works by completely cutting power to the devices plugged into it when they’re not in use, thus saving the power that these devices would otherwise have consumed in Standby Mode.

Bye Bye Standby is a new way to save energy, carbon emissions and money.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars These are great!
They work so well, I haven’t seen my electric bill yet, but it’s so easy to shut off all of my outlets before I leave the house. Each remote will work with 12 plugs!!! (I purchased 3 sets of two) (they all have channel settings on the back) GREAT PRODUCT!

5 Stars Awesome!!
These things are great! I have purchased two sets, and have one remote at the front door, and one in the bedroom. The distance is pretty good, I tend to make sure I am close enough to hear the click sound made, when I turn things on and off. You can see that the remotes only have 3 switches on the front, but there is A/B/C/D on the back. On the units plugged into the wall, you select A-1/2/3 B-1/2/3 C-1/2/3 D-1/2/3, so by default you have have A set in the back and control three units, moving the back control to B allows you to control another set of three. I currently use it for my tv setup in the front, pc in the back, wireless router/internet box, and tv in back room.

This is the best power conservation hardware I could find, not to mention the awesome price. I know these will pay for themselves within a month or two!

5 Stars save energy the easy way
I always tried to turn off all my peripherals but my husband never did. This does it for him! No thinking involved. And it is pretty idiot proof for set-up, so I could do it myself!

5 Stars Conveniently Solved My Problem
My problem was finding a device that works with a powerstrip. Before finding Bye Bye Standby I bought an appliance timer but the powerstrip would not turn on. This is perfect solution to saving money!!

5 Stars Works Great!
Works great, just hit the remote at night or before going to work. Hope to see a difference in my electric bill.

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