By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

Purchase here and visit the Currency Wars website.

James Rickards has written a book that each and every American should buy, read and take to heart. Mr. Rickards is an investment banker and a military adviser and he pulls no punches in his book Currency Wars – The Making Of The Next Global Crisis.

It’s about time someone brought home the urgency of the financial situation here in the US. Someone with enough gravitas that can get people in the know to listen and it should chill them to the bone. According to Rickards we are well into the third currency war and the outcome this time could be catastrophic to say the least.

The book is presented in three parts and is a thoroughly riveting read. The first part details Rickards’ participation in an exercise at the Warfare Analysis Laboratory near Washington D.C. The second part is an analysis of the first two currency wars. The third and final section of the book explains why the world is now fighting Currency War III which began in 2010.

The first currency war entailed the horrendous 1921-1936 reintroduction and then subsequent collapse of the gold standard. This contributed hugely to the birth of the Great Depression and played a significant role in the inception of World War II. The second currency war found its birthright at the conclusion of the postwar and Bretton Woods’ linking of the dollar to gold. This was followed by Carter’s disastrous economic upheaval in the 1970s.

With the Fed’s continuous printing of money and manipulation of the markets, not only is hyperinflation an almost foregone conclusion, but the trigger of revolutions worldwide ala the ‘Arab Spring’ model are simply economic byproducts spurred on by the Fed’s quantitative easing shenanigans.

Rickards is right in that more banks should have been allowed to fail in 2008. Bailouts should never have occurred. He is also right to warn America of the growing financial and military threats of China, Russia and Iran. If our dollar can be weakened enough, one of those big boys will certainly strike at us not only financially, but militarily.

Rickards also promotes a return to the gold standard and I wholeheartedly agree with that as well. In fact, as economies fail and governments fall, the gold standard will almost certainly be reinstituted whether the Progressives want it or not. The greatest Depression the planet has ever known will work as a playing field leveler. The only question is, can we stand on our feet quickly enough to prevent dictatorships from usurping power across the globe? Will we be strong enough in America to enforce the Constitution as we know it?

If Rickards is right, and I think he may well be, all currencies will fall and it will be as devastating as a military invasion here in the US. Gold, silver, food, lead and other staples will become barter items. Think it can’t happen? That’s exactly what is happening in Greece currently.

This book is easily one of the best I have read. If you want the truth and you want to read a book that you can’t put down, purchase Currency Wars. I guarantee this will make you sit up and think. The author is gifted and brilliant and he can write, which is a rare talent indeed. I enjoyed the book so much, I made my husband read it. Buckle up kiddies – reality is about to knock Americans on their collective arse.

Here are a few points from the book:

  • Behind closed doors at the Pentagon’s first-ever financial war game. Under the watchful eyes of high ranking military and intelligence officials, teams representing the U.S., Russia, China, Swiss banks and private hedge funds square off in a global battle in which the only weapons are currencies, stocks, bonds and derivatives. Participants include Wall Street professionals along with those from think tanks, the armed forces and top universities.
  • A review of the prosperity that marked the classical gold standard before the Great War of 1914 to 1918 and the subsequent and much maligned gold exchange standard of the 1920’s.
  • The story of how the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, starting with the Panic of 1907.
  • The antecedents and progressions of Currency War I (1921-1936), Currency War II (1967-1987) and Currency War III which began in 2010 as a consequence of responses to the 2007 recession and financial crisis.
  • How globalization increased the scale and interconnectedness of finance in unprecedented ways and the impact it had on the waging of currency wars. No longer were the only players actual states, but soon terrorists, criminal gangs and other bad actors joined the fray using sovereign wealth funds, special forces, intelligence assets, cyber attacks, sabotage and other covert action.
  • The misuse of different macroeconomic tools and theories which began in the late 1940s when economists began to promise that through specific fiscal and monetary policy, market fluctuations would be smoothed and the arc of growth extended beyond what had been possible in the past.
  • A discussion of the “Four Horsemen of the Dollar Apocalypse” – that is, four possible outcomes for the dollar – in order of disruptive potential from smallest to greatest: multiple reserve currencies, special drawing rights, gold and chaos.
  • Cogent policy recommendations to avoid the most catastrophic possible outcomes and ultimately save the dollar.