Is the U.S. economy turning Japanese?

According to maverick investment writers Bill Bonner and Addison Wiggin, the country’s current economic picture mirrors that of Japan’s decade-old "soft depression"–caused by an aging population and a structural reaction to its record-breaking financial boom.

As the U.S. downturn drags on, investors want to know what’s behind it all, what’s in store, and what they can do to safeguard their investments. Financial Reckoning Day: Surviving the Soft Depression of the 21st Century helps you chart your own financial destiny in today’s precarious investing climate. Irreverent and eye-opening, this "big picture" investment book starts with a simple premise: history shows us that investing has less to do with raw economic data and new statistics–the domain of most other investment books–and more to do with old rules, metaphors, and experience.

Putting this unique metaphorical focus (and its underlying principles) into action, Financial Reckoning Day draws upon military and sociopolitical milestones to highlight the surges and slides of history. Going a step further, the authors emphasize the powerful relevance of these events to today’s economic uncertainties.

Brimming with down-to-earth wisdom and take-it-to-heart lessons, Financial Reckoning Day tells you:

• Why the "Information Age" stock boom went bust, with sobering insights into such companies as Amazon.com, Cisco Systems, and Global Crossing
• Why high-spending, high-borrowing consumerism "leveraged" the U.S. economy and what you might expect from the "soft, slow depression" in the decade ahead
• Why Japan’s "miracle economy" unexpectedly collapsed and why a decade of monetary stimulus has failed to revive it
• How the Civil War–and the financing of wars in general–led to the creation of the central banking system
• What the legacy of Fed chief Alan Greenspan "ought" to be
• How the speculative mania for John Law’s Compagnie des Indes in the early eighteenth century presaged the dot.com stock craze
• How the "Aging of the West" is more likely to affect stock prices in the years to come than fiscal policy

As it reveals the hazards of democratic consumer capitalism and the financial follies of history, Financial Reckoning Day warns that depressions are not necessarily a thing of the past. And that’s why it’s so vital to have an essential, wide-angle resource like this on hand . . . to get you through the current crunch–and put profits back in your portfolio.