Customer Reviews

The Last Days of America

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Paul Erdman with a Doctorate in Economics has been an International Economist, a practicing Executive, and CEO of a Swiss Bank, in addition to being an accomplished author of a number of bestsellers. He is also a columnist for CBS marketwatch, and a regular writer/contributor on economic and financial matters.

Very often, we citizens get confounded by the happenings in Stockmarkets, Foreign Exchange fluctuations, Interest rate fluctuations, Balance of payments crisis, and many such esoteric matters of hi-finance and economics which have such a deep impact on the life and times of all of us. Reading text books on Applied Economics, Finance etc will not only bore us to death, but will also add to the confusion!

Paul Erdman's books are the best way to learn all this in an entertaining manner. As a qualified economist with practical hands on knowledge of Financial and Economic matters, and his creative abilities of writing good fiction, he weaves very interesting stories which are not only thrillingly entertaining but also very educative.

Though he had written 2 books in 1973 and 74, but his 1976 book "The Crash of 79" made him a celebrity overnight. Erdman has written a number of financial thrillers,and has netted an aggregate of 152 weeks on New York Times best seller lists!

This book `last days of America' is a chilling tale of how economic crisis could lead to major political upheavals and dangerous shifts in the balance of powers. The book published in 1981 based on political and economic trends then prevailing as well the expected scenario developments outlines a scenario that is really frightening, yet so plausible. Thank God no such thing happened.The story;

Frank Rogers is the President of an American aerospace company CMDS,making cruise missiles among other things, and Herb Patterson is the Chairman. A major missile deal from NATO on which CMDS has bet 750 million dollars in under threat which can put the very survival of CMDS at stake. Frank is commissioned to ensure that CMDS gets the order. Frank reaches Switzerland and ropes in the influential middlemen who can swing deals for a `consideration'. The deal is worked out at highest levels, monies are spent, but still the deal falls through! CMDS is on the verge of bankruptcy, which was the original master plan of the Politicians who wanted CMDS to sell them the technology of making the special cruise missiles. Will the plan be successful? Will the mighty Government of the US allow this to happen?What happens to Frank who gets caught in the middle and gets victimized as a sacrificial goat? How can one business transaction be used to change the entire global balance of power? Will US allow itself to be humbled?

To know the answers read this very interesting book which has been very well written, has great deal of infotainment, you will just love the style

There's something deceptive about the title of "The Last Days of America" since the basic plot is not principally concerned with a plan to bring down the USA. Rather, as we soon learn, the protagonists are West German politicians, military officers and businessmen (the story was written by '81 and set in '85) who plan on seizing world-power status independent of NATO and capable of facing off their greatest enemy, the USSR. Key to their plans is the acquisition of cruise-missile technology developed by the American company MDC.

Frank Rogers is the president of MDC, a beleaguered defense contractor on the brink of insolvency, and also the main character. Their only legitimate hope is to win a hefty NATO contract to supply cruise missiles in Europe. Though their missile outclasses those being offered by McDonnell or GD, their imminent bankruptcy makes them far more attractive as a target of a hostile merger. Herb Patterson, MDC's amoral chairman, works behind Rogers's back to engineer the technology transfer that will allow Germany to face down the Russians without help from Washington. Patterson comes off as equal parts genius and fool, but his mercenary motives are never in doubt - he's prefer to sell what he's developed to the Germans, even if that amounts to treason, because the only alternative is to become a McDonnell subsidiary. (Historians will always debate treason and patriotism, but there's no disputing master/servant in corporate politics.) Sent by Patterson to Europe to help broker the NATO deal, Rogers finds himself ensnared by all sorts of shadowy types whose connection to either the NATO deal or the German plot remain unclear. Slowly, Rogers realizes the truth, and makes a desperate attempt to undermine the German plot and save his own neck.

Erdman backs his cautionary plot with hefty servings of polemic as to global economics, politics and history. It would read like a better-written version of a Pat Robinson novel with better grammar and less partisanship and fewer submarines. That is to say it would be incredibly boring.

But...

Eredman pulls off a minor coup in narrating through Frank Rogers. Rogers is smart, though sometimes too smart for his own good. By making Rogers the voice of the story, Erdman can transfer to him all the traits that other authors annoyingly keep for themselves (like dinner menus, descriptions of cities that sound like travelogues - Rogers would sound wrong if he didn't comment on every appertif). Midway through, Erdman engineers another coup when he sends Rogers out on a desperate journey of escape. Will he make it? And can he derail Patterson and the Germans? Erdman eschews the brainy and brawny determination of your typical heroes - the guys who couldn't fail if they wanted to. Instead, he makes Rogers the perfect hero in the sense that we feel the weight of the world on him, and really wonder if he can pull it off.

This was an unexpectedly absorbing, if thin thriller, one that I read cover to cover in the space of 2 days.

This was a fun find in a used book store in Ottawa (why is it that used bookstores refuse to dust?). The title is a grabber but does not entirely support the plot. Written in 1981, the book brought back the headlines and attitudes from that era. Looking back now, the Cold War looks almost quaint compared with the current environment of cowardly terrorism. The plot involves arms purchases, the military-industrial complex. global finance, and geo-politics. All of which is meant to facilitate the placement of cruise missiles in West Germany paving the way for a Soviet-German non-aggression pact mirroring the one penned by Hitler and Stalin decades earlier. Such an agreement spells the marginalization of America globally. Call it a pre-apocalyptic tale as it intimates a third world war. It is well researched, authoritative but is not an action-thriller being so detailed and talky. Still very enjoyable, especially reading it thirty years after original publication.

I was pleased to be the one to add the cover on Amazon and thank the original owner for keeping the book in such great shape - the spine was not even cracked. I love the cheesy cover - it has a cut out revealing two of the characters and boasts that the book was 17 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. There is also an ad for Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's Oath of Fealty inside - I have read their Lucifer's Hammer. The whole thing was a bit of a time capsule for me.

Paul Erdman belives that most foreign countries look out for themselves and that America, our own country, should and must do the same. That is the overarching theme of this 70s political thriller. America is in dire financial straits, with a falling dollar and stagnant economy. A major US aerospace company, buffeted by these trends, finds that it can save itself at the cost of selling out America. Foreign powers maneuver to take advantage of the faltering United States. This novel, while containing details that are anachronistic today, nevertheless has an eerie relevance as we watch the dollar plunge, gold skyrocket, and America become uncertain of itself in the 2011 time frame. Highly recommended. RJB.

There's something deceptive about the title of "The Last Days of America" since the basic plot is not principally concerned with a plan to bring down the USA. Rather, as we soon learn, the protagonists are West German politicians, military officers and businessmen (the story was written by '81 and set in '85) who plan on seizing world-power status independent of NATO and capable of facing off their greatest enemy, the USSR. Key to their plans is the acquisition of cruise-missile technology developed by the American company MDC.

Frank Rogers is the president of MDC, a beleaguered defense contractor on the brink of insolvency, and also the main character. Their only legitimate hope is to win a hefty NATO contract to supply cruise missiles in Europe. Though their missile outclasses those being offered by McDonnell or GD, their imminent bankruptcy makes them far more attractive as a target of a hostile merger. Herb Patterson, MDC's amoral chairman, works behind Rogers's back to engineer the technology transfer that will allow Germany to face down the Russians without help from Washington. Patterson comes off as equal parts genius and fool, but his mercenary motives are never in doubt - he's prefer to sell what he's developed to the Germans, even if that amounts to treason, because the only alternative is to become a McDonnell subsidiary. (Historians will always debate treason and patriotism, but there's no disputing master/servant in corporate politics.) Sent by Patterson to Europe to help broker the NATO deal, Rogers finds himself ensnared by all sorts of shadowy types whose connection to either the NATO deal or the German plot remain unclear. Slowly, Rogers realizes the truth, and makes a desperate attempt to undermine the German plot and save his own neck.

Erdman backs his cautionary plot with hefty servings of polemic as to global economics, politics and history. It would read like a better-written version of a Pat Robinson novel with better grammar and less partisanship and fewer submarines. That is to say it would be incredibly boring.

But...

Eredman pulls off a minor coup in narrating through Frank Rogers. Rogers is smart, though sometimes too smart for his own good. By making Rogers the voice of the story, Erdman can transfer to him all the traits that other authors annoyingly keep for themselves (like dinner menus, descriptions of cities that sound like travelogues - Rogers would sound wrong if he didn't comment on every appertif). Midway through, Erdman engineers another coup when he sends Rogers out on a desperate journey of escape. Will he make it? And can he derail Patterson and the Germans? Erdman eschews the brainy and brawny determination of your typical heroes - the guys who couldn't fail if they wanted to. Instead, he makes Rogers the perfect hero in the sense that we feel the weight of the world on him, and really wonder if he can pull it off.

This was an unexpectedly absorbing, if thin thriller, one that I read cover to cover in the space of 2 days.

Last Days of America By Paul E. Erdman Pocket Books 1982

isbn 0-671-44717-3

"The Last Days of America", quirky title -- but the author

holds you at bay as he unravels the mystique of the M.I.C.

with such stunning "inside" information that prompts one to

think hard about the geo-political dynamics that envelope

the world of arms development -- their deals and bribes

and secret meetings.

Excerpt on page 208:

"Why the Bohemian Grove? Because if the critical mass of

Oppenheimer, Conant, and Lawrence had ever been know to come

together in one place, then the people in the physics

departments of the universities of Gottingen and Tubingen

and Tokyo would have known, instantaneously, that the atomic

age had dawned in America. ..."

And on cruise missiles which is what the book is all about, an aerospace company and its international deals.

An excerpt on page 137:

"As the cruise missile flies, it uses its radar altimeter to

measure alterations in the height of the land below relative

to sea level as the terrain changes from hills to valley to

lakes to mountains. Its flight path is programmed to match

the earth's contours on, say, a line between..." A page

turner indeed.

Paul Erdman with a Doctorate in Economics has been an International Economist, a practicing Executive, and CEO of a Swiss Bank, in addition to being an accomplished author of a number of bestsellers. He is also a columnist for CBS marketwatch, and a regular writer/contributor on economic and financial matters.

Very often, we citizens get confounded by the happenings in Stockmarkets, Foreign Exchange fluctuations, Interest rate fluctuations, Balance of payments crisis, and many such esoteric matters of hi-finance and economics which have such a deep impact on the life and times of all of us. Reading text books on Applied Economics, Finance etc will not only bore us to death, but will also add to the confusion!

Paul Erdman's books are the best way to learn all this in an entertaining manner. As a qualified economist with practical hands on knowledge of Financial and Economic matters, and his creative abilities of writing good fiction, he weaves very interesting stories which are not only thrillingly entertaining but also very educative.

Though he had written 2 books in 1973 and 74, but his 1976 book "The Crash of 79" made him a celebrity overnight. Erdman has written a number of financial thrillers,and has netted an aggregate of 152 weeks on New York Times best seller lists!

This book `last days of America' is a chilling tale of how economic crisis could lead to major political upheavals and dangerous shifts in the balance of powers. The book published in 1981 based on political and economic trends then prevailing as well the expected scenario developments outlines a scenario that is really frightening, yet so plausible. Thank God no such thing happened.The story;

Frank Rogers is the President of an American aerospace company CMDS,making cruise missiles among other things, and Herb Patterson is the Chairman. A major missile deal from NATO on which CMDS has bet 750 million dollars in under threat which can put the very survival of CMDS at stake. Frank is commissioned to ensure that CMDS gets the order. Frank reaches Switzerland and ropes in the influential middlemen who can swing deals for a `consideration'. The deal is worked out at highest levels, monies are spent, but still the deal falls through! CMDS is on the verge of bankruptcy, which was the original master plan of the Politicians who wanted CMDS to sell them the technology of making the special cruise missiles. Will the plan be successful? Will the mighty Government of the US allow this to happen?What happens to Frank who gets caught in the middle and gets victimized as a sacrificial goat? How can one business transaction be used to change the entire global balance of power? Will US allow itself to be humbled?

To know the answers read this very interesting book which has been very well written, has great deal of infotainment, you will just love the style of Paul Erdman!