8 Books That Predicted The Financial Crisis (PHOTOS, POLL)

Ever wish you had a crystal ball? Would have been convenient if there had been some warning about the kind of financial crisis we're facing now. It would have been great if someone had told us how to prepare. Well, someone did--lots of someones--and they were even on the bestseller lists. I'm sure many were listening, but perhaps not enough. Here are some of the books that warned us about the present. Stay tuned for the list that warns us about the future.

"The Major Economic Cycles", Nikolai Kondratieff (1925)

Where to do we begin? By looking at economic waves. Long ones. Guess where we are now, crest or trough?

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Comments

[jeemy]

03:10 PM on 01/02/2010

Two glaring omissions from the list:

The Trillion Dollar Meltdown by Charles Morris, 2008
The Dollar Crisis by Richard Duncan, 2003

Also, Infectious Greed by Frank Partnoy is a better book than Fiasco. It's a much more detailed indictment of OTC derivitives--a time bomb that is yet to blow up. This one may still have predictive value even though it was written in 2003.

http://books.google.com/books?id=Lr5wQgAACAAJ
http://books.google.com/books?id=XBe8AAAAIAAJ
http://books.google.com/books?id=sXyrgFotCGAC

[jimbofry]

09:34 AM on 12/10/2009

"Empire of Debt, The Rise of an Epic Financial Crisis" by Addison Wiggins nailed it. Should be on the list.

[Oleg1]

10:22 PM on 12/09/2009

A few of these books are already hopelessly outdated.
Considering recent news that governmental bank bailout plan instead of spending $76 billion is now projected to make PROFIT for the government to the tune of approx. $20 billion.

[ManoftheWest]

07:50 PM on 12/09/2009

Try reading A Short History of Financial Euphoria by John Kenneth Galbraith.

He points out that the "new" financial ideas are just the same idea recycled over and over. If you allow people to gamble with borrowed money, sooner or later the bubble will pop.

It's a short book and written in a clear prose that even Sarah Palin should be able to read without help from her children.

[Ranta]

12:06 AM on 12/09/2009

Nomi Prins was a managing director at Goldman. Her 2004 book,Other Peoples Money, about the Enron scandal, laid out most of what was wrong on Wall Street and what later happened in 2008.

[breakingpoint]

10:50 PM on 12/08/2009

so much for Peter Schiff I guess

read TheBitchesBack http://jischinger.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/financial-suicide-bombers

[JohnSawyer]

10:00 PM on 12/08/2009

Some days, I think we should just give up on money itself, and see how that works out.

[AmandaBC]

06:27 PM on 12/08/2009

Never wrote a book on finances in my life. I knew the financial crisis was coming the minute GWB was sworn in. Am I a financial genius or was it bleeping obvious?

[Rule Of Law]

06:53 PM on 12/08/2009

Both? :)

[Norm]

10:04 AM on 12/09/2009

It was bleeping obvious; even I knew, albeit slightly later than you.

[sloppybear16]

06:12 PM on 12/08/2009

Where is "Crash Proof: How to Profit From the Coming Economic Collapse" by Peter Schiff?? He detailed the how crisis would unfold in great detail. He said Freddie and Fannie would go bankrupt, The Fed would cut interest rates further, Washington would try to bailout Wall St. instead letting them fail, gold and silver would perform beautifully....

He just came out with an updated version, "Crash Proof 2.0" has some extra 80 pages or so. The books are as hilarious as they are informative. He's got a great sense of humor.

[Amy Hertz]

01:17 PM on 12/09/2009

Take a look at today's story: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/09/huffington-post-readers-p_n_384844.html

[land2341]

05:55 PM on 12/08/2009

I had a conversation with a finance wiz in early 2006 about this. He swore up and down that I was chicken little and incredibly foolish. He recommended I read books about trading so I could Understand better. I took my money elsewhere.

The problem? Most of these people actually believe their own press. They believe that making profit is good and necessary regardless of the short term or long term costs.

[Bobzmcishl]

05:32 PM on 12/08/2009

The problem is these books were the needle in the haystack amidst all the daily pumping up of our financial markets by the likes of CNBC, Fox Business News, WSJ, Barrons, Business Week, and hundreds of feel good books about the market and how to get rich quick. Add to that all of the adulation given to CEO's that made them into celebrities, and we entered into our 100th iteration of "greed is good". Even today, these same business acolytes paint a picture of America in which we are all capitalists living off our money rather than earning our money the old fashioned way by actually working.

[ajax2]

05:13 PM on 12/08/2009

Since there are so many Christians involved the first book should be the Bible and its warning on avarice and greed.

[wadenelson1]

04:55 PM on 12/08/2009

The REALLY amazing part is that Sarah Palin read every one of 'em!

/snark

[JoeCorrao]

04:00 PM on 12/08/2009

http://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Shrugged-Ayn-Rand/dp/0452011876/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260305995&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Crash-Proof-2-0-Economic-Collapse/dp/047047453X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260306019&sr=1-1

[1oo2jtni]

06:38 PM on 12/08/2009

Thanks for sharing the links!

[Rule Of Law]

02:09 PM on 12/08/2009

part 1

As many here have already noted--and I'm pleased to finally see gaining traction in the popular thinking--this so called crisis was manufactured, orchestrated, set up!

And gov and business both had a hand in it, though not in the way our conservative brethren would think. Historically the war in Viet Nam was a crushing blow to the Great Society--as a blogger on HP wrote just yesterday, and the first step toward dismantling the middle class, which has been the goal all along.

But conservatives would do well to research the actual dollars spent on what they refer to as "welfare" vs the entire cost of government: it is miniscule and has no effect vs the cost of two wars fought off the books and the shifting of the tax burden to the working classes via the Bush 1% tax cuts. Also, referring to SS or Medicare--which are funded through our taxes and contributions over a lifetime--as "Entitlement" is dis-ingenuousness bordering on lying!

Business has been working since FDR's New Deal to roll back any of the advances working people have made. It is not enough to be wealthier than 99% of us, but they hunger for the power and control over the People.