Profiting from the World's Economic Crisis: Finding Investment Opportunities by Tracking Global Market Trends -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Part One: ECONOMIC FORCES -- Chapter 1: The Budget Deficit Drives the Growth of All Debt -- The Budget Reflects the State of the Nation -- Federal Budget Spending -- Taxes and the Federal Budget -- Federal Budget Borrowing -- How Will the Deficits Be Funded? -- History Puts the Credit Crisis in Perspective -- Historical Projections Have Underestimated Deficits -- The Components of Government Spending -- How Government Debt Compares to Inflation in Other Countries -- Conclusion -- Chapter 2: The Trade Deficit and U.S. Dependency on Foreign Investments -- The United States Is the Largest Debtor -- The Connections between the Trade Deficit and the U.S. Economy -- The Connection between Home Mortgages and the Trade Deficit -- Implications of a Falling Trade Deficit -- Trade Deficits and Government Budget Deficits -- The Effects of the Trade Deficit -- Trade Imbalances Hurt the Dollar Status and Set Up Foreign Investors -- Connecting the Trade Deficit, Budget Deficit, and the Fed -- Sources to Watch -- Custody Accounts at the Federal Reserve -- What Will Be the Effect of the Increasing Trade and Budget Deficits? -- Conclusion -- Chapter 3: The Big Costs of Health Care, Social Security, and the Military -- Health Care and Social Security Costs -- Social Security Will Drag Deficits Lower -- Defense Spending Is Continuing to Grow -- Conclusion -- Part Two: FINANCIAL CRISIS RESPONSE -- Chapter 4: The Federal Reserve Prints Our Money (Stop the Presses!) -- What Is the Fed? A Private Profiteer or a Government Agency? -- Who Benefits from the Fed? -- How Is the Fed Affecting Our Investment Horizon? -- The Fed Is Out of Control -- How Did the Fed Pay for Its Big Expansion?.

Money Creation at the Fed: Is There Any More to It Than Dropping Money from Helicopters? -- How the Fed Really Creates Money -- How Effective Is the Reserve Requirement at Controlling Money? -- So Why Are We Seeing Deflation in Stocks and Houses Now? -- Foreigners Are Partners in Our Credit Supply -- The Government Is Supporting the Economy Rather Than the Dollar -- Federal Reserve's New Inflation Policy -- Who Will Buy All the Treasuries? -- When Might Deflation Turn to Inflation? -- Political Implications of Egregious Fed Spending -- The Fed May Be Acting Beyond Its Intended Authority -- Conclusion -- Chapter 5: The Importance of Debt for Predicting Our Economy -- Our Debt Has Grown Way Beyond What Our Economy Can Support -- Our Money Is Debt Today -- Debt and Money Have Grown Together -- Credit Flows Predict Economic Crisis -- Credit Expanding and Contracting Defines Our Financial Future -- Economic Effects of Debt -- Where Is the Inflation? -- Managing the Overextended Debt Leads to Inflation -- The Implications of the Bursting Debt Bubble -- Conclusion -- Chapter 6: The Big-Picture Model of Our Economy -- Equilibrium Is an Illusion: The Underlying Structure of Financial Systems -- The Overview Model -- The Virtuous Cycle of Growth -- The Vicious Cycle of Destruction -- Seeing the Relationships in the Data -- Conclusion -- Part Three: RECESSION OR DEPRESSION? -- Chapter 7: What Can the 1929 Great Depression Teach Us about Today's Crisis? -- Comparing the Stock Market during the Depression with the Current Economy -- Comparing Prices and the Money Supply during the Depression with the Current Economy -- Comparing Industrial Output during the Depression with the Current Economy -- Comparing the Value of Gold during the Depression with the Current Economy -- Comparing Interest Rates during the Depression with the Current Economy.

Comparing Public Debt during the Depression with the Current Economy -- Comparing the Price of Oil during the Depression with the Current Economy -- Comparing Corporate Bond Rates during the Depression with the Current Economy -- Comparing Unemployment during the Depression with the Current Economy -- Comparing the Producer Price Index (PPI) during the Depression with the Current Economy -- Comparing Housing Growth during the Depression with the Current Economy -- Comparing the Trade Balance during the Depression with the Current Economy -- Comparing Excess Reserves at the Fed during the Depression with the Current Economy -- Conclusion -- Chapter 8: What the United States Can Learn from Japan's Lost Decade(s): 1989-2009 -- Japan's Lost Decades: How Japan's Economic Bubble Burst after 1989 -- Quantitative Easing Is What You Do after Cutting Rates to Zero -- Comparing Quantitative Easing in Japan and the United States to 2009 -- Trade Deficit and Surplus Are Opposite Between the United States and Japan -- Comparing the National Government Deficits of Japan and the United States -- Lessons from the Japanese Experiment -- Investment Implications in Japan -- Chapter 9: What the United States Can Learn from German and Other European Hyperinflations, and from China Today -- China's Currency and Economic Expansion Actions Today -- Chinese Money and Credit Spike Upward -- Other Countries' Inflation after Big Government Deficits -- Currencies No Longer in Circulation -- Looking at Other Financial Crises for Similar Characteristics to the United States -- Review of What We Learned from the Currencies of the World -- Conclusion -- Part Four: INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES -- Chapter 10: The Stock Market May Be Dead for Another Decade -- A Stock Market Model -- Long-Term Cycles -- Dividend Yield Gives an Idea of Valuation.

Looking at Stock Market Sectors Gives Clues about Which Sectors May Be Overvalued -- Earnings by Sector Reveal the Drivers of Performance -- Conclusion -- Chapter 11: Energy in the 21st Century: The End of the Petroleum Age -- Peak Oil -- Discovery of New Oil Is Key, but It's Not Happening -- Supply Is Constrained -- Hubbert's Curve and the Timing of Peak Oil -- Natural Gas -- Coal and Uranium Will Be the Major Energy Sources of the Future -- Putting the Scenario Together -- Perspective from a Nobel Laureate -- Forecasting Energy Prices -- Conclusion -- Chapter 12: Food, Grain Trading -- Grains: Tight Supply Drove Prices Higher Worldwide -- Pricing Model for Grains -- Ethanol -- Cattle and Hogs -- Conclusion -- Chapter 13: The Demise of the Dollar -- U.S. Dollar Exchange Rates and Purchasing Power -- What's Driving the Dollar? -- Sacrificing the Dollar for the Economy -- Was the Fed Intervening for the Dollar? Federal Reserve Swaps -- Global Enthusiasm for the Dollar Wanes -- Oil Countries Are Turning Inward -- Is the Euro a Viable Alternative to the Dollar? -- How Gold Stacks Up against the Dollar -- How Stocks Compare to the Dollar -- Where Could the Dollar Go? -- Putting the Trends Together -- Investment Recommendations: Advice for Traders -- Conclusion -- Chapter 14: Interest Rates: The Trade of the Decade -- How the Growth of Public Debt Has Affected Interest Rates -- Government Credit Expansion Is Huge -- The Debt Trap -- Health Care Is Bankrupting the United States -- The U.S. Treasury Debt Is Short Term -- Tax Receipts Are Falling -- Other Central Banks, Money Expansion -- The Fed Pushes Mortgage Rates Down by Buying Mortgage-Backed Securities -- A Close-Up Look at Commodity Price Inflation and Rates -- Interest Rates Rise as the Dollar Falls -- International Interest Rates and Currencies -- Interest Rates as Best Investment Opportunity.

Conclusion -- Chapter 15: Gold Is the Only Real Money -- How the Price of Gold Reflects the Macroeconomic Forces -- Gold Was Used by Central Banks to Back Their Currencies -- How Gold Moves with Other Parts of the Economy -- Gold Supply and Demand -- Investment Demand Drives Price -- Summarizing Some of the Gold Supply and Demand Forces -- Gold Leasing and Forward Hedging -- The Seasonality of Gold Demand Also Affects Prices -- How to Invest in Gold -- Valuing Gold Mines Based on Gold in the Ground -- Futures Contracts -- Investing in Other Metals: Silver, Platinum, and Palladium -- Predicting the Price of Gold for the Decade -- Conclusion -- Part Five: PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER -- Chapter 16: Forecast for the Future -- The Crisis Horizon in Pictures -- Combining the Average-Case and Worst-Case Scenarios of What Might Happen to the U.S. Economy -- What Should You Do -- Summarizing the History -- Chapter 17: Looking Over the Horizon to See the Best Investments -- How Debt Affects the Currency and the Real Economy -- Currency and Financial Problems -- Who Will Buy Our Government Debt? -- The Real Economy and Its Tepid Growth -- International Currency Crisis -- Predictions -- Predictions for 2010 -- List of Tables and Figures -- About the Author -- Index.