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 enlarge | Author: Barton Biggs
Publisher: Wiley
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  39 reviews
Sales Rank: 35770
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 358
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.5 x 1.3
ISBN: 0470223073
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.60904
EAN: 9780470223079
ASIN: 0470223073
Publication Date: February 4, 2008
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| Customer Reviews:
 Really a History Book, But a Good One!! April 25, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Wealth, War, and Wisdom is an excellent book about the history of WWII. Author Biggs proves his thesis in just a few pages: The stock markets of the various nations involved in the war knew far better than the man on the street which way the war was really headed, often predating the good or bad news by months or even years. Ninety percent of this book is a rehash of the history at various points of the war, with ten percent given over to prove his thesis. Especially recommended for business readers who spend all their time in the here-and-now, this book will give them a new appreciation of our history and the efficiency of the world's financial markets.
 An Impressive and Interesting Read April 17, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book is an interesting read, and should be of interest to a wide range of readers. With Mr. Boggs background as a market strategist, he has some interesting insights and points of view that will trigger critical thinking in many people who decide to take up this book. I recommend it.
uneven but insightful April 14, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
As someone who researches military history, and invests in stock market shares, I was interested in seeing the two, laid side-by-side. Mr. Biggs is on an important and novel track by juxtaposing war/political events and securities trading; he summarizes the course of WWII (and much of the first half of the 20th Century relating to it, e.g., the Weimar economy or post-war Japan and Korea).
(As regards Weimar, Biggs notes, "The message for wealth preservation is important. Hyper-inflation occurs from time to time, and basically it is one of the Four Horsemen in drag.")
I am reviewing from an advance uncorrected-proof copy, so I can overlook the typos and the missing diagrams (which may prove to be highly useful to illuminate the discussion, once included in the first edition). Still, I hope that subsequent editions might correct some of the leaps in narrative: in one page he goes from the 1937 U.S. recession, to the 1987 stock crash, to Adm. Yamamoto's time as naval attache in Washington - in three successive paragraphs.
To be sure, the author admits he is not a military historian, so I can accept the anecdotal parts (that is, the "war stories" about generals and political leaders), with what happened, contemporaneously, to securities markets. Still, I would have liked to have had some insight, say, into what the $3 billion gamble on Boeing's B-29 program, or Goodyear's getting drafted into building Corsair fighters, did to their value per share. Or, for that matter, I'm curious how he can talk about postwar Japanese property values (i.e., under MacArthur and later) and not talk about the Bretton Woods economic system, which was (for better or ill) one of the most decisive results of that war. I could've used less of isolated incidents like the Jervis Bay naval battle and more on British commodity shortages, which were what the enemy was trying to create by interdicting the convoys. He does, however, cover the losses of fortunes in Italy, France, Germany and Eastern Europe in some detail and insight -- even evoking, in passing, the Gone With The Wind misfortunes of the Civil War South as a comparison. Scarlett O'Hara was fortunate not to have her estate outside, say, Krakow.
Mr. Biggs is very worthwhile when he gets into how wars (and post-war periods) can create, destroy, or shelter wealth - not just securities but real property, art, gold, and cash. He shows how land can survive a war or be expropriated by the winners, and how shares can (at least overall, judging by his research) prove worthwhile over the long term. It helps, as he shows, if you don't lose a war, don't go into debt financing one, try to diversify your wealth and have an escape hatch -- your nest egg isn't worth much if you don't catch the last plane out of the capital and you wind up behind barbed wire.
His lessons on how wealth is destroyed in wartime are more and more insightful in the final chapters, and perhaps worth wading through the back-and-forth war stories. Indeed, Mr. Biggs has started a new discussion of comparative history and economics, from the viewpoint of the frontline investor, and the book's lasting value may be in sparking more research and discussion.
 Poorly written and elitist April 13, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I found Bigg's writing style clunky and unconvincing- think college freshman's first essay. I think I understood the thesis, but that was more because of the liner notes- presumably written by an editor- than the author's elucidation in the introduction. I couldn't get past the feeling that he was so repetitive because he had a page quota to meet.
What completely lost me was his assertion that because the investors in the stock market could be assumed to be well-educated and moneyed, their group actions should, by extension, be given more weight than those of any other groups. Aside from being elitist, it seemed at odds with the "group think" he took such pains to defend as valid.
Interesting theory- someone else should give it a stab.
weak, woeful and worthless. April 7, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
The worthwhile content would have easily fit into a two page magazine article. Barton, a WW enthusiast, rambles. He feels no compunction to actually back up any statements, because he's forewarned you, in fund manager small print style, he is not really an historian. He goes off topic and down lanes of thought that end up nowhere.
Barton's thesis (if it really deserves such a lofty title) is that stock-markets are great predictors of world conflict victors. He believes in the 'wisdom' of the crowd. The crowd is really just those who control the majority of money (ie fund managers), so this is a rather small crowd, but I guess they can afford to pay for the best information.
He's retired and clearly hasn't got anything better to do with his time, only read this if you are in a similar situation with cash to burn.
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