In early-2009, as it seemed like the financial world was teetering on the edge of collapse, I was asked by a family member what I thought about a new book by Harry Dent called The Great Depression Ahead: How to Prosper in the Crash Following the Greatest Boom in History.
My response to this inquiry was that anything is always possible, but predicting a depression after all of the carnage we had just witnessed in one of the worst recessions in almost 100 years seemed like a stretch. Dent had some buzzwords to back up his prediction — demographic cliffs and such — but obviously, his timing was just a tad off. The book came out in January of 2009, exactly two months before the stock market bottomed. We have since witnessed one of the least volatile economic recoveries in history.
Written By: Ben Carlson, CFA
Published By: A Wealth of Common Sense