The Age of Turbulence, by Alan Greenspan

The sub-title of this book is “Adventures in a New World”. This is a surprisingly readable book. I highly recommend it. Considering some of the past statements made by Alan Greenspan, I found it rather shocking that he can write an interesting and readable book. You should read this book as you might learn, in an entertaining and enjoyable way, something about economic matters. You will certainly learn a bit more about a man, no matter what you may think about him, that has had a big impact on the US economy and therefore on our Canadian economy.

Reading about Alan and reading reviews on this book, there seems to be too groups of people, those who love him and those who hate him. Those who hate him blame him for the current asset bubble crisis in the US and anything else wrong with the US economy.

So there are huge arguments on what he may or may have done for the US economy. You can take sides, or do as I do and just believe that no one knows what they are talking about when it comes to the economy. What I can see is that, whatever else you might think of Bush, he has certainly been bad for the US economy. The Social Security is still not properly funded. The federal debt is way out of control and it was only made worse by Bush.

We in Canada are in a much better position. We have the CPP under control. Our federal debt is under control. I never like Jean Chretien, however, you have to admit that between him and Paul Martin, our economy was put into great shape. I was so disappointed in Paul Martin as he made an awful Prime Minister. I was looking forward to him being Prime Minister, but it did not turn out as I had imagined. I guess he spent so much time and effort into getting the job, he did not know what to do when he got it.

Wikipedia, of course, has a section on Alan Greenspan. See book review in the NY Times at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/18/books/18leonhardt.html?_r=1&oref=slogin. There is some discussion of him at The Nation at http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=233482. You can see the book on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Age-Turbulence-Adventures-New-World/dp/1594201315. For some of the book being read, go to http://www.audible.com/adbl/site/openplayer.jsp?popUp=false&productID=BK_PENG_000754&title=The+Age+of+Turbulence:+Adventures+in+a+New+World+(Unabridged).

See my website at www.spbrunner.com/stocks.html for a list of the stocks for which I have put up spreadsheets on web site.