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Leverage: How Cheap Money Will Destroy the World Hardcover – December 4, 2017
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Debasement of the dollar as a result of ill-use of leverage is destroying the global economy, and in Leverage, well known market commentator Karl Denninger follows the path of money throughout history to prove that currencies are debased when moneyed and powerful interests pull the levers of government and policy to enrich themselves at the expense of the masses. The result is ugly: the value of everything―including gold―falls, and even personal safety is at risk in a world where there is limited money even for essentials like food and fuel. History is littered with the collapse of monetary and economic systems from Rome to Germany to Zimbabwe.
- Presents an inside look at how moneyed and powerful interests debase the dollar through the willful and intentional failure to honestly represent short and long-term mathematical truths that underlie all economic systems
- Shows how, if imbalances are not corrected, financial crises will reoccur again and again
- Authored by Karl Denninger, who has been running the popular website The Market Ticker since 2007
- Print length224 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherWiley
- Publication dateDecember 4, 2017
- Dimensions6.41 x 0.86 x 9.3 inches
- ISBN-101118122844
- ISBN-13978-1118122846
4 stars and above
Editorial Reviews
From the Inside Flap
LEVERAGE HOW CHEAP MONEY WILL DESTROY THE WORLD
Leverage is an essential part of the financial system, and when used properly it allows businesses to borrow funds to invest in growth and expansion, offers opportunities for reasonably priced housing, and much more. But current imbalances in the ways in which leverage is being used by the rich and powerful in the United States and abroad have led to an alarming situation that threatens to shake the global economy to its core.
In Leverage: How Cheap Money Will Destroy the World, well-known market commentator Karl Denninger literally follows the money, tracing the path it has taken through history and discovers a shocking truththe power to control a nation's purse strings is addictive, and when that power falls into the hands of only a select few, they will pull the levers of government and policy to enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else. History is littered with the stories of collapsed monetary systems, and in every case the debasement of the currency in question, and the disasters that followed, can be directly blamed on excessive leverage, deployed in ill-intentioned and fraudulent ways by the elite.
The current Great Recession is no exception to this rule. It was no accident, and the politicians and monied interests responsible knew that it was coming. Special interests and other influential individuals have always used leverage to enrich themselves while looting the population at large. Eventually the bill always comes due and then we all have to pay.
With Leverage in hand, we can avoid this disaster, and Denninger shows how. With practical, realistic ideas for fixing the financial system, devising sound energy policies, and more, the book stands between us and a debt we simply can't afford.
From the Back Cover
LEVERAGE HOW CHEAP MONEY WILL DESTROY THE WORLD
Leverage is an essential part of the financial system, and when used properly it allows businesses to borrow funds to invest in growth and expansion, offers opportunities for reasonably priced housing, and much more. But current imbalances in the ways in which leverage is being used by the rich and powerful in the United States and abroad have led to an alarming situation that threatens to shake the global economy to its core.
In Leverage: How Cheap Money Will Destroy the World, well-known market commentator Karl Denninger literally follows the money, tracing the path it has taken through history and discovers a shocking truththe power to control a nation's purse strings is addictive, and when that power falls into the hands of only a select few, they will pull the levers of government and policy to enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else. History is littered with the stories of collapsed monetary systems, and in every case the debasement of the currency in question, and the disasters that followed, can be directly blamed on excessive leverage, deployed in ill-intentioned and fraudulent ways by the elite.
The current Great Recession is no exception to this rule. It was no accident, and the politicians and monied interests responsible knew that it was coming. Special interests and other influential individuals have always used leverage to enrich themselves while looting the population at large. Eventually the bill always comes due and then we all have to pay.
With Leverage in hand, we can avoid this disaster, and Denninger shows how. With practical, realistic ideas for fixing the financial system, devising sound energy policies, and more, the book stands between us and a debt we simply can't afford.
About the Author
KARL DENNINGER Founded The Market Ticker® (market-ticker.org), a blog dedicated to uncovering market mischievousness. He is also a columnist on SeekingAlpha.com and has appeared on MSNBC with Dylan Ratigan, on CNBC, and is a frequent guest on WBAL talk radio in Baltimore. He produces a weekly Internet radio segment on BlogTalkRadio with real-time call-ins from listeners and occasional invited guests. Karl is also one of the original founders of the Tea Party movement, and, along with FedUpUSA, launched the first financial protests related to the bailout of banking institutions after the failure and forced takeover of Bear Stearns. Previously, he was CEO of Macro Computer Solutions, and is a self-made entrepreneur and millionaire.
Product details
- Publisher : Wiley; 1st edition (December 4, 2017)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 224 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1118122844
- ISBN-13 : 978-1118122846
- Item Weight : 14.3 ounces
- Dimensions : 6.41 x 0.86 x 9.3 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,440,300 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #284 in Credit Ratings & Repair (Books)
- #6,149 in Finance (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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About the author

Mr. Denninger is the former CEO of MCSNet, a regional Chicago area networking and Internet company that operated from 1987 to 1998. MCSNet was proud to offer several "firsts" in the Internet Service space, including integral customer-specified spam filtering for all customers and the first virtual web server available to the general public. Mr. Denninger's other accomplishments include the design and construction of regional and national IP-based networks and development of electronic conferencing software reaching back to the 1980s.
He has been a full-time trader since 1998, author of The Market Ticker (http://market-ticker.org), a daily market commentary, and operator of TickerForum, an online trading community, both since 2007.
Mr. Denninger received the 2008 Reed Irvine Accuracy In Media Award for Grassroots Journalism for his coverage of the 2008 market meltdown.
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The book itself is an indictment of the abusive borrowing and lending by banks, governments, corporations, and consumers over the last three decades; while this borrowing has driven an illusory prosperity, it will be the eventual cause of a moderately or horribly painful reckoning. The first half of the book discusses key concepts of compound interest and the debt circle, which you probably should have learned in school, and then explained how these basic principles have been intentionally or unintentionally ignored. The most cogent argument Denninger makes is that lending must always be backed with tangible assets equivalent to the value of the loan or else charge interest rates sufficient to compensate the risk bondholders and stockholders take when they provide necessary additional capital to back the loan. The message is clear: lenders keep trying to sell money they don't have.
The second half of the book takes an important turn. Noting that most books of this type advise how to avoid the catastrophe, Denninger makes a clear and haunting point. There are no shelters. There are no safe havens. The best shelter against catastrophe is to restore honest lending and a sustainable economy and polity in the United States (or wherever your native land may be). The rest of the book discusses a variety of solutions (some borrowed from others with attribution) to make the United States into that kind of nation, touching on tax policy, trade policy, and energy, among other topics.
The work's weakness lies in Denninger's frequent claim that there is a need for "national conversation and debate" on issue X or Y. The debates Denninger mandates are incredibly difficult, ranging from overhauls of all state and Federal laws, potential Constitutional changes to give Congress additional enumerated powers, to decisions of how indigent people in need of critical care are going to receive or pay for it. Is the civil society that has proven capable of ignoring three decades of gross mismanagement in Congress and boardroom capable of implementing prudent reform in a time of catastrophic economic crisis? Denninger provides no reason to think so, unless he and his enthusiastic forum denizens start running for office. Some readers also might question Denninger's Whiggishness about technology.
As a significant percentage of humanity is now waking up to the reality that great gobs of the public purse have been snatched away, "Leverage" arrives at a perfect time to help understand how, why, and by whom it was made to happen.
What MAY surprise some of the more cynical among us, however, is the clear prescription the book lays out for pulling the world economic system back from the precipice, and putting into place economic policies that would return society to healthy financial growth. Whether we have the collective courage and wisdom to follow through on the suggestions certainly remains to be seen.
I recommend this book very highly to anyone seeking to understand the basic operations of our financial system, and how and why it was manipulated to create the current, alarming, state of affairs.
Leverage is concise and to the point. Enough examples to make strong, factual arguments without getting bogged down in too much detail. It's an engaging read.
Karl does have solutions to our economic and energy problems. They are not pretty. They don't involve magical thinking. Economic contraction will occur. It's just a matter of when and on what terms. On the other side of economic contraction is a vision of affordable housing, college, health care, and more.
The political will to require one dollar of capital for all unsecured lending, constraining government spending to the amount of money taken in via taxation, building LFTR power plants, and fixing tax & trade policies is no where on sight. However, the first step in fixing our problems is knowing what they are, how they came into being, and what to do about them. Leverage delivers brilliantly on all these fronts.
Top reviews from other countries
Easy to digest - an excellent read.