The Real Crash: America's Coming Bankruptcy---How to Save Yourself and Your Country [Kindle Edition]

Peter Schiff (Author)

Book Description

You might be thinking everything’s okay: the stock market is on the rise, jobs are growing, the worst of it is over.

 

You’d be wrong.

 

In The Real Crash, New York Times bestselling author Peter D. Schiff argues that America is enjoying a government-inflated bubble, one that reality will explode . . . with disastrous consequences for the economy and for each of us. Schiff demonstrates how the infusion of billions of dollars of stimulus money has only dug a deeper hole: the United States government simply spends too much and does not collect enough money to pay its debts, and in the end, Americans from all walks of life will face a crushing consequence.

 

We’re in hock to China, we can’t afford the homes we own, and the entire premise of our currency---backed by the full faith and credit of the United States---is false. Our system is broken, Schiff says, and there are only two paths forward.  The one we’re on now leads to a currency and sovereign debt crisis that will utterly destroy our economy and impoverish the vast majority of our citizens.  

 

However, if we change course, the road ahead will be a bit rockier at first, but the final destination will be far more appealing.  If we want to avoid complete collapse, we must drastically reduce government spending---eliminate entire agencies, end costly foreign military escapades and focus only on national defense---and stop student loan or mortgage interest deductions, as well as drug wars and bank-and-business bailouts. We must also do what no politician or pundit has proposed: America should declare bankruptcy, restructure its debts, and reform our system from the ground up.

Persuasively argued and provocative, The Real Crash explains how we got into this mess, how we might get out of it, and what happens if we don’t. And, with wisdom born from having predicted the Crash of 2008, Peter Schiff explains how to protect yourself, your family, your money, and your country against what he predicts.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Peter Schiff sounded the alarm about the housing bubble created by the Federal Reserve and predicted the bubble's inevitable collapse, yet he was ignored by mainstream economists and ridiculed by the media.  In The Real Crash he is at it again, illustrating how the financial crisis of 2008 is nothing compared to what is coming down the road. Peter Schiff is right again. I hope more people listen this time." – Ron Paul; Congressman (TX-14) and three time Presidential Candidate

 

"Peter Schiff's new book "The Real Crash; America's Coming Bankruptcy" is written in the same blunt and punchy style that makes him a favorite guest on my Fox News show.  It's not just what he says, but the fact that he lives what he says. Unlike Some authors who talk about business as spectators, Peter doesn't speak from the ivory tower of academia or from the comfort of an anchor chair. He runs a real business and fights every day to make it a success in spite of all the government's tax and regulatory policies."-- Mike Huckabee; Host of The Huckabee Show and former Arkansas Governor and Presidential Candidate

 

"America's political leaders should have taken Peter's 2007 book, Crash Proof, to heart before they tried to borrow, print and bail us out of trouble.  Today, they -- along with all Americans -- absolutely must take heed of The Real Crash. Peter Schiff understands the marketplace, and he understands the consequences that occur when government attempts to manage that marketplace.  Pay attention, America!”-- Gary Johnson, Former governor of New Mexico and presidential candidate

 

“In ‘The Real Crash,’ the fearless Peter Schiff has written the most compelling argument against central economic planning and debt-financed consumption to come along since our present woes were exacerbated in 2008. His explanations of how unfettered free choices will produce prosperity, and how ending the Federal Reserve, abolishing the IRS, and returning to the gold standard will tame the federal beast are among the most forceful and cogent I have seen. He even explains how anyone can prosper from government stupidity in these perilous times. And he does all this in a breezy and readable format.”-- Judge Andrew P. Napolitano, Senior Judicial Analyst, Fox News

 

“Peter Schiff is an original thinker, a man of startling insight and honesty, in many ways, a genius. I have learned that you disagree with him at your peril. He is one of the few men of finance of whom I wish I could say I had paid more attention to. Live and learn. Read and learn.”-- Ben Stein; author, actor, political and economic commentator

 

"Peter Schiff says the Fed's bubble machine is destroying the American economy and he is right. Zero interest rates and QE are crushing savers, rewarding speculators and enabling the Washington politicians to issue endless debt.  Every concerned citizen should read this."-- David Stockman; Former OMB director under President Ronald Reagan

 

“Peter Schiff has been painfully right about the downward spiral of the U.S. economy over the last four years. Easy money, rising tax rates, and unbridled debt are a prescription for economic disaster. Let's hope Barack Obama reads this.”-- Stephen Moore, Economist and Fox News commentator

 

“While many of us have justifiably focused on how high taxes are economically corrosive, Peter Schiff does a great job of explaining why government spending and debt are even worse.   As we continue grappling with the monster of a runaway federal government, this book is one of the best assets conservatives can turn to in making the case for fiscal responsibility and capitalism.” --  Grover Glenn Norquist; President of Americans for Tax Reform

“Peter Schiff was one of the few pundits who predicted correctly the 2008 economic and financial collapse.  Now, he makes a compelling case in a highly readable book that the day will come when the world stops trusting the dollar and the ability of the US government to pay its debts. I agree with him that “Then we’ll get the real crash.”-- Marc Faber; Editor, The Gloom Boom & Doom Report

 

“You need to know his case whether he is right or not if you are going to be prepared for this decade.”-- Jim Rogers; Investor and Bestselling Author of “A Gift to My Children” and “Investment Biker”

About the Author

PETER D. SCHIFF is an American investment broker, author, and financial commentator, and was a candidate in the 2010 Republican primary for the United States Senate seat from Connecticut. He frequently appears as a guest on CNBC and Fox News, and is the host of the radio show and podcast The Peter Schiff Show.He is the author of the New York Times bestselling Crash Proof and Crash Proof 2.0, as well as The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets, which was also a Business Week bestseller.

 

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Product Details

• File Size: 616 KB
• Print Length: 350 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1250004470
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press (May 22, 2012)
• Sold by: Macmillan
• Language: English
• ASIN: B006JJPBGE
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Not Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,638 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Business & Investing > Economics > Economic Policy & Development
  • #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Business & Investing > Economics > Economic Conditions
  • #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Business & Investing > International

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

221 of 239 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brief Summary and Review May 27, 2012

By The Book Reporter

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

*A full executive summary of this book is available at newbooksinbrief dot com.

Since the housing and financial crash of 2008, America's recovery has been tepid at best. Unemployment has remained high; manufacturing has not returned; personal savings are as low as they've ever been, and personal debt as high; housing is still a mess, and banking not much better; and, to top it all off, government debt is awe-inspiring and seems completely insoluble. According to financial investor, commentator and author Peter Schiff, while all of this is certainly disheartening, it should not come as much of a surprise. Indeed, Schiff argues that all of this economic slumping is a natural result of America's misguided economic policies; including especially the Federal Reserve's manipulation of interest rates, the government's uncontrollable borrowing, and, in connection with this, the maintaining (and even expansion) of unsustainable social programs . For Schiff, these same policies led directly to the crash of '08 (which he correctly and very famously predicted), and are leading the U.S. directly into an even worse crash now. In his new book `The Real Crash: America's Coming Bankruptcy--how to Save Yourself and Your Country' Schiff outlines how America got itself into this mess in the first place, what the end game is likely to be, and what the nation and its citizens should do to make the coming unpleasantness the least unpleasant as possible.

The main problem--and where most of the other problems begin--according to Schiff, is the Fed's manipulation of interest rates. By interfering with the free market value of money, and making it cheaper than the market would dictate, the Fed encourages financial bubbles that then necessarily pop. When a bubble pops, the market needs to correct itself; however, over the past 20 years, the Fed has not really allowed this correction to take place, as every time a bubble pops the Fed has lowered the interest rate even further, causing more money to enter the system and a new bubble to form. First it was dot-com stocks, then it was housing, and now it is government spending.

As a matter of fact, while government spending has reached new and mind-boggling heights in the recent past, it has actually been ballooning in this direction for years, spurred on largely by the low-interest rates that the Fed has provided. The government has used this borrowed money to maintain and extend social programs (such as Social Security and Medicare), and, more recently, bailout packages for failing businesses and entire industries. All the while, the government has been going deeper and deeper into debt. A big part of what has allowed the American government to borrow as much as it has (and to keep on borrowing now) is the fact that the American dollar is the world's reserve currency, which means it is always in demand, and hence people and organizations have been willing to act as creditors in order to get it. For Schiff, though, the sheer size of the debt, and the fact that it is running away faster and faster everyday (and has no realistic chance of ever being repaid) will sooner or later turn investors away from considering the American dollar a valuable reserve--at which point it will lose its status as the world's reserve, and investors will stop investing in it.

At this point, the American government will have but two options. It can either declare bankruptcy, or it can print the money it needs to pay its debt. In either case, an enormous crash will result, for in the first case, an astronomical sum of money that the economy had assumed existed will suddenly be wiped away, and in the latter case hyperinflation will set in, and the American dollar will be whittled down to worthless.

At this point, the country will be forced to start over. For Schiff, this may not be such a bad thing, for, according to him, the nation has simply put itself in an unsustainable position, and the sooner it starts over the better. At that time, Schiff argues, America can finally get back to the small government and free-market forces that the country's founding fathers designed the nation around. While much of the book is focused on how the country can do this now, before the crash hits (in such areas as banking & finance, taxation, healthcare, education, the military, et. al.), Schiff very much believes that nothing can actually prevent the crash from coming, and that therefore, most of the rebuilding will have to be done after The Real Crash.

The book is very easy to read and the arguments laid out clearly and concisely, and backed up with both theory and historical evidence (though a little more of the latter would have been nice, on occasion). The author has done well to bring libertarian views into the mainstream. For a full executive summary of the book visit newbooksinbrief dot com, and click on article #14.

366 of 431 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed May 25, 2012

By Bruno

Format:Hardcover

This book may be useful to someone who has not read Schiff's other books, or who does not listen to his TV appearances or his own radio show. However, I was immensely disappointed to find out that this book is not very helpful in any practical sense.

The reason for that is that there is a single chapter (out of 28!) where he discusses how to protect your wealth from this new crash, and even that is pretty generic.

Mostly the book is his political beliefs in why we need restructuring of our money and system. I agree with most of that. However, I have read the majority of this before in not just one, but THREE other Schiff books! It's a rehash for cash, apparently, timed to take advantage of the economy and markets souring this summer.

Anyone who listens to his web radio program has already heard virtually all of this. But the title and subtitle are very misleading. It is not mostly about the crash, and it is virtually not at all about "how to save yourself", other than the suggestion perhaps to vote for Ron Paul or others like him.

Peter has already won many over. For the vast majority of readers they fit that description, making the book fairly pointless. Unfortunately he is less interested in nuts/bolts investing advice these days than the politics surrounding the issue.

Not a worthless purchase, but for me it was a big disappointment.

104 of 124 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic and Productive! May 23, 2012

By Brian B.

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I've completed reading The Real Crash and am WOW'd. This book gives some brief background as to how the U.S. got into this financial mess (for much more historic detail check out Crash Proof by Schiff), but most importantly, Peter hits on all of the major financial issues that exist in our country today, and he offers the simplistic suggestions for reform to fix our path. From education to health care, Peter writes in his easy to understand, and analogy-packed style, about how we can alter this destructive path we are on. In his usual honesty, Peter admits there is no win win here, but we can certainly guide ourselves towards a softer landing with a quicker, healthier recovery. I suggest this book for anyone that wants to learn about economics in general, or wants to learn about the real causes and effects behind present and past goverment policies.