Currency Wars

The Making of the Next Global Crises

By: James Rickards

Narrated by: Walter Dixon

Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

In 1971, President Nixon imposed national price controls and took the United States off the gold standard, an extreme measure intended to end an ongoing currency war that had destroyed faith in the U.S. dollar. Today we are engaged in a new currency war, and this time the consequences will be far worse than those that confronted Nixon. Currency wars are one of the most destructive and feared outcomes in international economics. At best, they offer the sorry spectacle of countries' stealing growth from their trading partners. At worst, they degenerate into sequential bouts of inflation, recession, retaliation, and sometimes actual violence. Left unchecked, the next currency war could lead to a crisis worse than the panic of 2008.Currency wars have happened before-twice in the last century alone-and they always end badly. Time and again, paper currencies have collapsed, assets have been frozen, gold has been confiscated, and capital controls have been imposed. And the next crash is overdue. Recent headlines about the debasement of the dollar, bailouts in Greece and Ireland, and Chinese currency manipulation are all indicators of the growing conflict.As James Rickards argues in Currency Wars, this is more than just a concern for economists and investors. The United States is facing serious threats to its national security, from clandestine gold purchases by China to the hidden agendas of sovereign wealth funds. Greater than any single threat is the very real danger of the collapse of the dollar itself.Baffling to many observers is the rank failure of economists to foresee or prevent the economic catastrophes of recent years. Not only have their theories failed to prevent calamity, they are making the currency wars worse. The U. S. Federal Reserve has engaged in the greatest gamble in the history of finance, a sustained effort to stimulate the economy by printing money on a trillion-dollar scale. Its solutions present hidden new dangers while resolving none of the current dilemmas. While the outcome of the new currency war is not yet certain, some version of the worst-case scenario is almost inevitable if U.S. and world economic leaders fail to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors.

©2011 James Rickards (P)2011 Gildan Media Corp

Critic reviews

"[Rickards] presents a compelling case for his views and offers thought-provoking information for library patrons. This is a must-read book." ( Booklist)

Take the Blue Pill...

Don't read this book if you can't handle the truth.

Sounds sobering, doesn't it?

Well, I mean it. This is an excellent study of our nation's coming crisis, backed by facts and solid analysis. It will illuminate you. It will scare you. Why, because it's not fiction. This is quietly and slowly happening around us.

Writers try to capture this kind of disaster in novels. It makes good money in the literary biz. "I'll write a novel about America's financial collapse!" And they write. And they fall short. Even if it sells.

Unfortunately, they have very little understanding of what has HAPPENED to get the U.S. to where it financially is today. Consider this: We're printing and flushing $85 billion worthless US dollars a month into its already crippled economy, facing a "Race to the Bottom" currency war with other major nations. At the same time, nations and central banks are doing everything they can to hold back the price of gold, while quietly getting as much of it as they can in their coffers before currencies fail.

This is engaging and well-written. How? You couldn't get a better unbiased expert.

As a commodities broker who has dealt daily with these issues for over a decade, I can tell you that this book is not only factual, its extremely ACCURATE. Rickards, a lawyer with over thirty-five years of financial experience on Wall Street, has often counseled and worked for the Feds. He was hired by the U.S. to put together a system to provide advanced economic warnings and operations to avert economic terrorism against the U.S. (and did this successfully before and during 9/11). He's testified on the Hill numerous times. Look him up. His credentials are incredible.

In 2005, that system successfully warned of a pending disaster on the horizon. He presented the evidence to the Feds, and they rejected it. Why? Because he cited THEM as the problem.

Well, we all know what happened in 2008.

That same system now warns of a MUCH greater economic nightmare. And the culprits?

Once again, we're doing it to ourselves.

Want to know more? Maybe not. You've got to want to pull your head out of the sand on this one. You want an excellent read that pulls no punches, keeps you on the edge of your seat with hard facts and a good story that most fiction writers would kill for?

This is very much like the Matrix, and you have to choose the blue pill or the red pill. Take the red pill, and you go back to sleep, and forget about all this. Take the blue pill, and you get the real story behind the facade, the reality of our fragile economy.

Take the blue pill.

Good info but hard to sit through

I liked the content. I personally didn’t enjoy the narrator. Maybe because the topic was about economics which is dry material at best. Would have liked to have heard Jim do the narrating. Lots of valuable insight. I plan to listen to his other 3 books.

The true Value of Money!

What made the experience of listening to Currency Wars the most enjoyable?

It explained the global process of currency and it's manipulations by our corporate masters.

A real eye opener about currency wars and US econo

Good voice. Good speed. Interesting material. Good intro to global economics and US currency vulnerability.

good book

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eye opening!<br />

I've never been too trusting of the Fed, but this book chronicled the Fed and all of its power grabs. needless to say I found it enlightening.

Great Read. Very Insightful

Heavy on theory and application. Also wraps up with what the author thinks can be done to solve some the problems outlined. Some of the topics are over the heads of the average consumer, however the author does an excellent job of defining and explains these topics. Highly recommended reading.

Informative to all listener! A must!

A lot of history about monetary history. I like how it's broken down by timeline all the way up to the present day.

Great book, lives up to the hype

There were many compelling aspects to the book. I most enjoyed the chapters where Mr. Rickards discusses the prior currency wars in detail and provides time frames for the beginning and end of them. The interaction of various countries after some currency or exchange rate alteration is very interesting and helps explain global reactions during those periods. The impact exchange rates and interest rates have on the world is truly incredible. There is also a very compelling assessment of the current currency war that is now unfolding. This is a must read for anyone interested in international currency interactions, monetary policy and history, and current events in finance.

Outdated and Doubtful

This book, written during the depths of the Great Recession, seems mainly aimed a putting forward a philosophy. In the first part, he gives an account of currency developments and the move from the gold standard to the central bank system of today. But his comments are sometimes hard to believe, like when he claims that the second half of the 1800's were a time of growing prosperity. In fact it was also a time of bubbles, crashes, and periods of depression.

The second part gives an account of the global economic and monetary system around 2010. Looking back, it is a bit laughable that his doomsday scenarios have not come true. We can now say that the global economy stabilized and is growing again thanks to the efforts of the central banks and their coordination.

In the third part he argues for a gold-backed currency, but by the time he lays out the case, I was more convinced than ever that it would be a stupid idea. Some people don't believe in global warming even though over 95% of climate scientists say it is true. In the same way, the author does not explain adequately why we should return to a system that almost all economists reject.