The Great Devaluation is about the imminent and future failure of the global monetary system. It covers the history of The Federal Reserve, how it was formed, why it was formed, and the secretive nature of the independent institution. The book also highlights how going off of the gold standard has facilitated the long-term devaluation of the US Dollar and has made the institution the most powerful in the world.
The Great Devaluation makes the case that years of manipulation by central banks have led to distorted and negativeinterest rates around the globe that central banks are powerless to normalize. This reality, coupled with ongoingmassive government debt and deficits, indicates that central bankers have lost control of the monetary system.The book will make the argument that the next recession will be the nail in the coffin for the Federal Reserveand the global monetary system as we know it. As this occurs and becomes more obvious, gold will explodehigher in value in the coming years. All of this is set against the backdrop of the ending of the super cycle which last roughly 90 years.
The book will highlight the major similarities between where we are today and where we were 90 years ago. It will examine the looming generational battle between Baby Boomers and Millennials and highlight how the next financial crisis will be a catalyst for a mindset shift away from monetary policies and more towards socialistic fiscal policies in the coming decades. The Great Devaluation warns readers and investors of the risks they are facing with the potential collapse of the US Dollar and the global monetary system. The book suggests that readers prepare in order to avoid the pain associated with the collapse of the US Dollar.
This is such a weird book. The more I think about Barattas arguments, the weirder the book becomes.
Let me begin with how Baratta seems to view gold. He says that gold is the only currency made by god and that it has innate value. Even if you believed in a god, that doesn't give gold value, other than being a rare mineral. As stated by many economists, historians and writers; gold has value exactly because it is worthless and useless. He states that gold is something real, that you can touch and feel, unlike the dollar. Well, I have held a dollar in my hand. It was real and I touched it. He also admits that gold is only worth what people are willing to pay for it, so it doesn't have value over what people want to pay. In this, gold is in no way different than any other currency, mineral, service and so forth.
Currency has never been made by any god, at any time. Currencies have been made by rulers or collectives, with a collective understanding that something has worth. It is created and maintained by faith in its value. So detangling the dollar from gold was not the first time in history currency was detangled from physical objects. Read Debt: The first 5000 years for a better glims into different monetary systems.
The book talks about the cost of social security and medicare for the older generations as a huge burden and that it would become higher with new reforms. The US already pays more for healthcare than most European countries, as well as everyone paying insurance as well. Seems like a good place to start if you want to save money and give people a better service. And Bernie Sanders and the rest are in no way "far left" in any other country except the US. Center right in some countries.
And over to the books main point: This book is all about how gold, the big G is better than stocks. Gold is up more than stocks over a 90 year period! Gold is up more than stocks in a 25 year period. Well, that is true. Gold is however down in a 80, 70, 60, 40, 30 and 10 year period. So if you buy gold, instead of stocks, outside of the two years he mentions in the book, you would lose money compared to stocks or often interest from a savings account. There is a reason there aren't any graphs showing the price of gold over a longer time period in this book. As he says in chapter 20; sometimes when you lose, you lose. Or if you bought gold in 1934 or 1980, you lose big. Like really big. As big as most recessions, but over a much larger time frame. So it would take longer to recover, if you did at all. He shows with graphs in the book how you didn't earn money on stocks between 1964 and 1985, or how DOW didn't recover after the great depression for 60 years. Well, gold hasn't recovered from 1980 yet, and before that it used 38 years, from 1934 to 1972 before reaching its same height. These are weird things not to mention, in a book that basically is about gold.
The book also uses a lot of time repeating itself. As it saying the exact same thing it did 2 pages ago, word for word. This happens a lot.
This book does a fair job in going through some history of both the FED, dollar, stocks and how printing money and low interest rates, lower taxes and such have influenced the market. I find the insight a wonderful tool to have, even though he skips over anything even remotely negative about gold, and have some weird ideas about why gold has worth. 0 percent interest rate for the rich and how it makes companies buy back stocks and increase the wealth gap, is such a obvious thing, if you just stop for 10 seconds to think about it. There are insights like this, as well as the comparisons of money printing to the stock market, that raises this book from a 2 to 3 stars.
Would I recommend this book? Probably. Just google historic gold prices before doing anything dramatic.
A must read! If you want to know the likelihood of what's coming next, and you want to be prepared, this is your book. I'm not usually into financial books at a large scale, but the Covid situation so many unemployed, and the stock market still going up (what's wrong with this picture thought) made me want to know where the untruths and the skeletons in the closet were, so to speak. I got a history lesson on The Fed, the dollar, the Gold Standard etc... and was surprised how much I enjoyed how Adam Baratta gives us the information encapsulated in great stories. I read this in one day and worth it!
The Great Devaluation may be one of the most timely books ever written on the state of the global economy. Baratta sums it up simply enough with the following idea: “What seems crazy in normal times becomes necessary in a crisis.” The Great Devaluation is a book that explains why the real crisis facing the world today is not the Coronavirus. The real crisis facing the world is explosive government debt and deficits. Governments are now left with no choice but to spend more than they make, borrow more than they can ever repay, and devalue their currencies to cover it all up.
If you're familiar with the author's background then you'll probably be familiar both with his strategy as well as what he advocates for. This is a book about investing amidst the imminent crisis of 2020 induced by the Covid pandemic, but a crisis which by design of the system would have been inevitable either way at some point in time. Specifically, it is a book for those who still have money to invest and are wondering what to invest in. You will also be reading about the previous crises and strategies adopted at the time versus why those strategies won't work now. Well argumented ideas as to why to invest in gold as a main asset. I was fascinated the most by the strategies used by the Federal Reserve and the way the US has handled recession in the past, which I was unfamiliar with, as well as by the attitude of tycoons and their never quenched money hoarding, which although obvious and nearly leading to a civil revolution in the US at present, was very well put into perspective in this book and refreshes in my mind the meaning of 'digging your own grave'.
The content of this book is very repetitive and could have been included in about 30 pages instead of 200 or over. I was excited to read this book and quickly lost interest and had to force myself to finish it.
The Great Devaluation (2020) tells the story of an economy in crisis. The global monetary system is a house of cards perched on a mountain of debt that threatens to topple at any moment. The villain of this story is the United States Federal Reserve, whose short-sighted policies – which have only helped to line the pockets of the wealthy elite – have set us hurtling toward a downturn to rival the Great Depression. The stakes have never been higher for investors, but while fortunes stand to be lost, fortunes also stand to be made – by those who invest wisely.
The author is a gold bug, is dismissive of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, and sneers at Modern Monetary Theory which holds that debt is good and let's have some more. He does a great job of explaining what is going to happen in the near future and certainly leaves the reader with a good deal of food for thought.
Took me a while to finish this book as I was busy with exams in between.
I don't disagree that the US is in big trouble with the mounting debts and when it finally blows up, it'll come suddenly.
Overall I found the writing a little simplistic without taking into account the other big player in the world - China. The author wrote that every country in the world have spent more than they earn, resulting in deficits. Can't be more wrong than that without considering China and Singapore.
Essentially, the author is very optimistic about gold and urges us all to consider it. Good alternative viewpoint which perhaps we should, if ever US gets to the point of raising it's price.
I did appreciate that he tried to update the chapters since the corona virus has became a pandemic.
Read for entertainment, take the advice with a pinch of salt.
This is a book that goes all over the place. The general disorganization of the text is made worse by the general lack of understanding of any of the subjects at hand by the author. Overall, it looks like the book is made by newspaper headlines glued together by TV pundit drivel.
So the Fed is bad. The debt is bad. But Trump did not shut down the Economy fast enough?
The guy has a hard time understanding finance. The highest he can get is something along the lines *gold is real money*.
So is he really able to embrace or prepare anyone for the future? Nope. Would any of the fuzzy methods work? Sure, like with the Horoscope reading, with enough mental gymnastics one can do a lot.
And no, gold is not the answer. Anything higher than Baratta's understanding of history would show that in the current situation, gold is no better than paper money.
An interesting read if anything. I'm not sold on his predictions as of yet. Anyone can make a prediction about where things are headed and be right at least part of the time. But 2 years after this printing and not everything is happening as he claims it should. Could it still happen? Sure. Time will tell.
Some things I wasn't to keen on was the writing, at times, repeated itself. Like word for word...two pages later. And the editing wasn't the greatest. Words were clearly missing in places and wrong words were used. I apologize that I don't have any examples as I didn't write them down as I was reading.
The Federal Reserve (Fed), in the author’s opinion, has distorted the way of financial market operations. The policies has been funnelling wealth into the hands of investors and making it impossible to return to a more hands-off approach. As the Fed continues to pump money into the markets, the national debt got higher and devalued, that puts the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency at risk. The author suggests investing in gold funds, the one commodity assumed to stay, moreover, a safer bet for investors.
Very interesting book. Great insight into the current state of the financial system. Glad the author does not just paint a picture of doom and gloom but adds helpful advice. Plenty of references and support data. Our global economy is in trouble and smart investors need to know what to do. The author helps to open the door to smart investment and an insight into what our government has been up to.
I expected this book to challenge my thinking about the global economy and markets and it did exactly that. I didn't necessarily agree with everything but the ideas are well thought through and articulated plainly. The major downside is how time-specific the book is. It was written in 2019 and by its publishing in mid-2020 much of what was said was outdated (or had already been fulfilled in some cases) because of the pandemic.
The Great Devaluationwas published in July of 2020, eighteen months before I started reading it. I have been amazed at how many of Adam Baratta's predictions concerning how the economy would be impacted by the Covid 19 pandemic have actually come to pass. His foresight about our current economic woes was prescient and the Ukraine war has accelerated the problems. Still a very interesting read.
Great book. The author was good at e explaining why the devaluation is happening now and will continue for quite some time. It's time to consider more tangible assets such as real estate and gold.
I do recommend this book. I can't seem to get out of this application. It says I need more words.
It is a good book to catch some insights. Those indicators and barometers mentioned in the book are all good and critical. However, it sometimes lost its direction in describing. It could introduce some economic models or financial models that will be better for people to get more. Anyway, it is good still.
Some good data on the fed and markets. Clearly the author is a gold biased guy who’s external business benefits from a good gold scare. Last half mostly feels like a sell. Worth a read of the first half but if you can remember he is biased
Very interesting take on the current economic situation (in U.S. mostly, but applies to the world by default). Recommended for anyone who is critical of modern economic systems and the monetary control system of the central banks.
This book was the worst book I have ever read. It has inconsistent information that is just flat out wrong. His statements have little to no support. Most of all, Adam barely has an argument. The book is not worth the paper it’s printed on.
Other than gold - What about other candidates for reserves like cryptocurrencies, petrocurrency, digicurrency? Thinking aloud Singapore created COEs out of nothing. But that is not really reserves. More like govt revenue..