Willem Middelkoop managed to give an independent analysis of the state of the world economics in only 200 pages. He keeps the story simple and to the point and works towards the prediction of the housing bubble in the United States, just before it actually happened. For those that want to understand world economics better, this book is a perfect start. I liked the clean setup of the book, all the "juicy" comments and references are present in the form of footnotes. 4 stars.