The Empire of Debt

Protect your investments with a deep dive into the past and future of finance Building on the uncannily accurate predictions in previous editions, this latest edition of The Empire of Debt: We Came, We Saw, We Borrowed, written by New York Times bestselling authors Addison Wiggin and Bill Bonner, explores the economic, political, and financial events between 2008-09 and 2023, placing them in historical context and explaining what's likely to happen for the remaining years of the 2020s. The book imparts practical advice on how to protect wealth in the face of ongoing and rapidly intensifying crises, as well as suggestions on how these trends can be played to put investors' own money to work. In this book, readers will learn about: Political development of US hegemony in the 20th century, from the founding of the Federal Reserve in 1913 through to the present Past and current conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Russia and their effects on finance The response to the Financial Panic of '08, including a decade of Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP) With investors more eager than ever to protect their investments, The Empire of Debt is an essential guide to the future of finance, harnessing history to accurately plot where we are and where we're going.

Introduction: The Bubble Empire, Redux 1 Part I Imperia Absurdum 21 Chapter 1: Dead Men Talking 23 Chapter 2: Empires of Dirt 43 Chapter 3: How Empires Work 59 Chapter 4: As We Go Marching 87 Part II Dead Presidents 99 Chapter 5: The Road to Hell 101 Chapter 6: A Great Depression 141 Chapter 7: McNamara’s War 163 Chapter 8: Tricky Dick 191 Part III Evening in America 203 Chapter 9: American Money 205 Chapter 10: The Empire of Debt 237 Chapter 11: Modern Imperial Finance 263 Chapter 12: Something Wicked This Way Comes 281 Part IV Fin De Bubble 295 Chapter 13: Welcome to Squanderville 297 Chapter 14: Kingdoms Are of Clay 317 Chapter 15: Turning Argentine 357 Chapter 16: Gray Swans 389 Notes 419 Index 439