Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
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This book is really frightening, and really boring. Not a good combination. The author basically says that we are at the beginning of another Great Depression, this one worse than the 1930s. He bases most of his predictions on demographics. As the baby boom generation peaks in its productivity and earning, the bubble will burst. In Dent's estimation, it happens every 80 years. Dent says, "It is the aging of a population that is most critical to economic growth and progress."
The problem with Dent's book, other than a desperate need for an editor, is that his version of the sky is falling lacks some credibility when his earlier predictions were so wrong. For instance, in his book The Roaring 2000's, he predicted that 2009 would be the most prosperous year in our lifetimes. Now he's saying that home prices have only just begun to fall and unemployment is on the way to Depression levels. He predicts the Dow will go as low as 3,800 in late 2012. And it gets worse - he predicts another terrorist attack on America late this year or early next.
Why would you want to read a book like this? Now that I've completed it, I'm not sure. I usually am one to want to read all of the information that's available, look at the world from every point of view, but I'm not sure this gives me enough sound information to make it worthwhile. I leave it to your discretion. As for me, I need a little fiction.
