Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets: Surviving the Public Spectacle in Finance and Politics

William Bonner · Lila Rajiva

Dec 2010 · Sold by John Wiley & Sons

About this ebook

An insightful look at how to succeed by going against the crowd

Collectively, people think and act in ways that are different from how they think and act as individuals. Understanding these differences, says William (Bill) Bonner-a longtime maverick observer of the financial world and the vagaries of the investing public-is vital to preserving your wealth and personal dignity. From the witch-hunts of the early modern world to the war on terror, from dot-com mania to the real estate bubble, people have always been caught up in frauds, conceits, and wild guesses-often with devastating results. In Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets, Bonner and coauthor Lila Rajiva show groupthink at work in an improbable array of instances throughout history and reveal why swimming against the current pays.

• Shares the deeper secrets of investing and pushes you to question what this means for your financial well-being
• Explains why people so often abandon good sense and good behavior to "follow the crowd"
• Offers concrete advice on how you can avoid the "public spectacle" of modern finance

The authors' cautionary tale of bubble economies reveals how the gush of credit let loose by Alan Greenspan has wreaked havoc on our lives-but their thoughtful and always entertaining approach also offers some sound investing principles for avoiding the pitfalls of the public spectacle, thinking for yourself, and protecting your money, your sanity, and your soul.

Ratings and reviews

This is a great book about economics and much more, although it does tend to sprawl. Bonner is well-known in the gold bug community, but Lila Rajiva, whose blog I recently came across, deserves much more credit than she has got for her substantial - and very funny- writing in this book. This is the only one of Bonner's books to possess serious intellectual heft...even though it's also funny as hell. The thanks for that goes to Ms. Rajiva, I'm guessing. As an aside, I notice that the Acknowledgment page, originally written by her (and noted as such in the original hard cover edition), has been credited to both authors in this version, and that too in such a way that Ms. Rajiva's authorship is not immediately apparent. Elsewhere, someone misleadingly refers to her as an editor. The vast marketing clout behind Agora network is probably the reason for such errors. Or so let's hope. Too bad. I really hope to hear more from this talented writer.

About the author

WILLIAM (BILL) BONNER is President and CEO of Agora Financial, one of the world's largest financial newsletter companies (www.agorafinancial.com). He is the creator of the Daily Reckoning, a contrarian financial newsletter (www.dailyreckoning.com). Bonner is also the author, with Addison Wiggin, of the international bestsellers Financial Reckoning Day and Empire of Debt.

LILA RAJIVA is a political journalist and the author of The Language of Empire, a groundbreaking study of the media coverage of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. She is a contributor to Agora Financial (www.agorafinancial.com) and the creator of the blog, The Mind-Body Politic (www.lilarajiva.wordpress.com).