Contagion: The Financial Epidemic That is Sweeping the Global Economy... and How to Protect Yourself from It

by John R. Talbott

Overview

For more than a decade, bestselling author and former investment banker John Talbott has accurately called many of the major financial crises we have faced long before they occurred. In 2003, he predicted the housing market collapse in his bestselling book, The Coming Crash in the Housing Market. In 2006, he foretold the peak in housing prices and wisely explained Sell Now!, in a timely sequel to his bestseller. Most recently, he insightfully probed the bottom-up economic policies that would guide Barack Obama to the White House in his book Obamanomics.

Past is always prologue for Talbott, and his economic reasoning and free-thinking forecasts about the future have captured people's attention. In his latest book, Contagion, he again warns about what once seemed implausible and impossible—the deepest global recession the world has ever seen, one that will forever shake the economic foundations and social fabric of our lives.

"Talbott is the author of two books that foretold the pain homeowners are now experiencing. . . . So far many of John Talbott's predictions have been spot-on. But as the housing bust continues, homeowners in my neighborhood and beyond have every reason to hope his prescience proves short-lived."
—Daniel McGinn, national correspondent, Newsweek, and author of House Lust: America's Obsession with Our Homes

"When John Talbott's controversial book, The Coming Crash in the Housing Market, hit store shelves in 2003, the real estate industry—and everyone else who stood to profit from the dizzying rise in U.S. home prices—gave it a hostile reception. So, with subprime mortgage losses and credit woes now the number one topic in the markets, what does the former Goldman Sachs investment banker see next?"
—The Globe and Mail (September 14, 2007)

With the worldwide financial crisis and economic contagion mutating in ways that foreshadow global economic meltdown, Talbott explores the necessary government actions and reforms—and strategies that investors can use—to weather one of the worst financial crises in history. Never have Talbott's predictions been as bold, or his advice about what to do in the future more timely.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780470466933
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	01/08/2009
Sold by:	JOHN WILEY & SONS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	418 KB

About the Author

JOHN R. TALBOTT is a bestselling author, a former investment banker for Goldman Sachs, and previously a visiting scholar at UCLA's Anderson School of Management. For the last decade, he has been writing full-time as an author, publishing six books and numerous peer-reviewed academic journal articles on economics and politics. His books include Slave Wages; The Coming Crash in the Housing Market; Where America Went Wrong: And How to Regain Her Democratic Ideals; Sell Now!: The End of the Housing Bubble; and Obamanomics. Talbott has served as an economic advisor to a number of developing countries, including Jordan and Russia. He has appeared live on CNN, Fox News, CNNfn, CNBC, MSNBC, and CBS, and has published articles in the Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, Philadelphia Examiner, San Francisco Chronicle, and Financial Times.

Table of Contents

Preface.

Chapter 1 Bamboozled.

Chapter 2 What Didn't Cause the U.S. Housing Boom and Bust.

Chapter 3 What Did Cause the U.S. Housing Boom and Bust.

Chapter 4 The Contagion Spreads from Subprime to Prime.

Chapter 5 How Low Will Housing Prices Go in the U.S.?

Chapter 6 The U.S. Economy Was Not in Great Shape to Begin With.

Chapter 7 The United States Enters a Long Recession.

Chapter 8 The Global Economy Catches the Contagion.

Chapter 9 Too Big to Fail—The $400 Trillion Derivatives Market.

Chapter 10 Local Governments Feel the Pinch.

Chapter 11 From Wall Street to Main Street.

Chapter 12 Demographics Magnify Contagion.

Chapter 13 Which Investments and Which Countries Will Weather the Storm the Best?

Chapter 14 Stop the Bleeding.

Chapter 15 No Future without Reform.

Chapter 16 A Warning Shot Across the Bow.

References.

About the Author.

Index.