Editor Reviews:

Product Description:
As the dollar continues to weaken against other currencies, it is increasingly clear that this event will have a significant impact on investors and consumers around the world. Never before has the "reserve currency of the world" been so burdened by debt or suffered from such serious structural imbalances. The Demise of the Dollar . . . And Why It’s Great for Your Investments examines the reasons for the dollar’s current slide and offers an up-close look at the Federal Reserve’s attempts to "manage" the dollar’s value. Filled with in-depth insights, wry wit, and sound advice, this intriguing text offers an inside glimpse of the reality of today’s dollar and its impact on the world’s economies as well as readers’ personal portfolios.

Amazon.com Review:
"Our long history of economic power and wealth is being eroded from within," writes Addison Wiggin, and the result will be reduced foreign investment, slow foreign demand for U.S. goods, and unfavorable currency exchange rates. A heavy debt burden, the trade deficit, and structural imbalances have created an unstable dollar bubble, and according to Wiggin, it's not a matter of if the bubble will burst, but when. That's the bad news. The good news is that hidden investment opportunities are waiting behind the weakening dollar. In The Demise of the Dollar… and Why It's Great for Your Investments Wiggin offers advice to readers looking to capitalize on this reality; specifically, he encourages investing in precious metals, tangible resources, and some select foreign markets.

Along with investment advice, Wiggin provides a brief history of government and consumer spending habits and how they have changed over the past 200 years. In clear language, he states the reasons for the dollar's decline, and provides explanations of the forces behind inflation, modern corporate accounting and adjustment schemes, the parallels between corporate failures and government policies, the implications of the national debt and deficit spending, and the distinctions between productive and consumptive debt. He also discusses how foreign countries, particularly China, are ultimately in control of the U.S.'s economic fate due to the staggering amount of credit they have extended. Wiggin is highly critical of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's policies, particularly the massive shift from production to credit that he has espoused, and calls into question his efforts to manage the dollar's value. Of course, Greenspan was not working alone--every president since Ronald Reagan has embraced his views. Written for lay readers, The Demise of the Dollar offers a practical analysis of what the "twilight of the Great Dollar Standard Era" may bring. --Shawn Carkonen

Rating : - Sound Directional Advice on Investing
After the revised version of this book came out recently, I thought it would be valuable to go back and read the 2005 version when the dollar was mid-way through its slide to the year 2008. As I checked the book out of the library, I had to laugh when the librarian pointed to the subtitle and said, "How does he think that a lower dollar is good for investments?" I responded, "I'm sure he's not talking about spending $1,000 a night for a hotel room in London."

Well, that's the point. He doesn't say much on why a lower dollar is profitable, mostly to help you defend against dollar declines with positions in commodities where supply and demand are out of balance, but the advice was directionally sound for 2005:

1. Buy oil service stocks and ETFs.

2. Buy foreign stocks and ETFs tied to commodity suppliers to China based in places like Australia.

3. Buy commodities through shares in energy and commodity sectors (oil and gas, precious metals, steel making).

4. Use options to take positions rather than take direct ownership (this didn't work well in all time periods).

5. Buy gold.

6. Buy dollar puts.

7. Buy Euro calls.

Aside from being pretty aggressive in favoring options over unleveraged positions, this advice would have been profitable.

Will the advice be profitable in the future? I suggest you read the revised version to see what you think.

The bulk of the book explains that the dollar is a fiat currency, rather than linked to continuing value, the effect of deficits and excess borrowing on its value, and the risk in the housing market. You can skip those parts because you've been reading about them in the news this year. The part that describes rapid rises in oil prices is more relevant to making money, as opposed to avoiding losses.