SURVIVING THE CATACLYSM: YOUR GUIDE THROUGH THE WORST FINANCIAL CRISIS IN HUMAN HISTORY BY WEBSTER G. TARPLEY © 1999 BY WASHINGTON GROVE BOOKS I announce the publication of an important new book dealing with the ongoing collapse and disintegration of the world financial system. This book contains a strong critique of the free trade/globalized financial system of the 1990s, and shows how the American middle class and its allies can fight back against the hedge-fund financiers through individual self-defense, and by changing public policy. This is the one indispensable book for the millennium meltdown of world finance, presented in its full historical context. It comes complete with strategies for the defense of your family and your country against the inevitable time when the bottom falls out of the globaloney mania. Here is an overview: PREFACE -- My track record as a financial forecaster, with a call for the regroupment of anti- globalization and anti-oligarchical forces. CHAPTER 1: THE ONCOMING CATACLYSM -- The ingredients of the crisis-ridden non-system of globaloney; how the contagion of crisis from Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, Russia, Long Term Capital and now Brazil points to breakdown ahead for the euro, the dollar, and the US banking system; how the $200 trillion derivatives bubble and yearly speculative financial turnovers approaching $2 quadrillion can lead to panic. CHAPTER 2: DERIVATIVE MADNESS -- The origins and dimensions of the weird speculative instruments which have been at the center of the crisis starting with the 1994-95 collapse of Orange County and Barings; a glossary of derivatives which can help you avoid financial ruin by enabling you to identify the derivative time bombs which can now be hidden in the fine print of contracts or investments. CHAPTER 3: THE $5 TRILLION MUTUAL FUND GAMBLE -- The shocking history of mutual fund collapses from the 1890s to today, featuring why mutual funds are inherently even more risky than the underlying stocks in which they invest. The full range of threats to your IRA, 401(k), and other long-term investments. CHAPTER 4: THE DESCENT INTO THE MÆLSTROM -- How the present non-system emerged from the breakup of the 1944 Bretton Woods system, showing how and why chronic crises have brought world finance to the brink 40 times since 1967, inflicting a terrible toll on the productive economy. The key British role in Nixon's August 15, 1971 scuttling of the gold standard is told in full for the first time. CHAPTER 5: THE IMMISERATION OF AMERICA -- How the financiers and politicians have cut the American standard of living in half over three decades, reducing the value of a dollar to 8 cents of the Eisenhower-Kennedy era; a full discussion of the Labor Department's Average Weekly earnings data series, which proves that the typical American job now pays less than it did in 1960. This is the data series professional economists love to avoid. CHAPTER 6: MODELS OF COLLAPSE -- How to understand the collapse phase of financial markets, debunking cyclical mumbo-jumbo by showing how the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England deliberately provoked the Crash of 1929. CHAPTER 7: MODELS OF DISINTEGRATION -- The dimension of economic and financial disintegration beyond mere collapse, shown through the hyperinflation of Weimar Germany and of the late Roman Empire. How the policies of the Bank of England guaranteed that the depression of the 1930s would be permanent, setting the stage for World War II. CHAPTER 8: USURY AND NATURAL LAW -- Why a viable human society cannot be founded on the usury and speculation which underlie globaloney, with insights from the Bible, the Holy Koran, and the writings of Confucius. CHAPTER 9: THE AGE OF OLIGARCHY -- The sociology of globalization, in which a tiny world elite of 500,000 plutocratic financiers attains fabulous wealth while the middle class is crushed and billions suffer. How and why oligarchy is gaining ground in the United States, western Europe, Russia, Japan, Latin America, and elsewhere. Among those responsible: Karl Marx, the Anglo-Venetian ideologue who attacked the middle class and gave the feudal aristocrats a free ride. CHAPTER 10: THE AMERICAN SYSTEM -- The real American tradition of dirigism, protectionism, and economic nationalism shown through the achievements of Alexander Hamilton, Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams, and the Populists of the 1890s. CHAPTER 11: SELF DEFENSE IN THE CRISIS -- How to insulate your family as much as possible from the crash by turning away from speculative hysteria now and acting to secure your home, car, tools of your trade, and other property on which your well-being and economic viability depend. CHAPTER 12: WORLD ECONOMIC RECOVERY -- The full array of government policies required for world economic recovery, from a new Bretton Woods to debt freezes for American consumers and actions to stop foreclosures, repossessions, and seizures. Three science drivers for America: biomedical research, high-energy physics, and space exploration/colonization. How investments in infrastructure, education, and exports can enhance recovery. How even small-scale measures like a Tobin tax on stock and bond transfers could easily save Social Security without payroll tax increases or benefit cuts. APPENDIX: SHADOWS OF THINGS THAT MIGHT BE -- Fictional scenarios of hyperinflation and hyperdeflation with the interplay of finance, economics, and politics as they might play out over the months and years ahead. Extensive bibliography and notes, about 875 pages. |
