BASICS OF INVESTING

Deflation: How to Survive & Thrive in the Coming Wave of Deflation

Selected as one of the "Best Business Books of the Year" by Library Journal, Deflation provides tools for investors to protect their assets and invest profitably in deflationary times, a post-inflation economic environment that few of today's investors have experienced­­and even fewer understand. Lively and easy-to-understand, it tells investors how to recognize telltale signs of deflation, discusses the industry sectors that are positioned to outperform the overall market, and reveals 13 deflation-ready investing strategies­­including low-risk fixed income techniques designed to sustain equity-style total returns.

Most people associate deflation with the 1930s: depression, unemployment, and a spectacular stock market crash. But A. Gary Shilling doesn't think that deflation is all that bad--in fact, he says, if you're prepared, deflation can be a good thing. In Deflation, Shilling outlines why he thinks we're about to enter a prolonged period of deflation and offers advice for businesses and investors on how best to position themselves and their finances and cope with the specter of falling prices.
Shilling sees several forces feeding the trend toward deflation, including the end of the cold war, reduced government spending, growing surpluses, the widespread adoption of technology, the emergence of the Internet, deregulation, and the recent Asian contagion. He also believes that the stock market is due for a severe correction that "would destroy enough individual wealth to chase consumers out of spending and into a saving spree," thereby slowing demand for goods and services and encouraging deflation even more.
Among the investments that Shilling recommends for deflationary times are treasury coupons and zero-coupon bonds, utilities, and U.S. stocks (after the correction, of course). Given Alan Greenspan's maniacal focus on fighting inflation, it might be difficult to swallow Shilling's deflationary forecast. Nevertheless, Shilling has done his homework, and it shows: he builds a case that's both convincing and easy to read. No one knows for sure what our economic future holds, but any open-minded investor would be prudent to hear Shilling out. --Harry C. Edwards

Li & Fung Daily Chart: A Relief Rally May Be In The Offing But Overall Trend Remains Negative.

There is a distinct hint of Armageddon in the air. According to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (recorded, thankfully, in 1655, before she blew up her entire village and all its inhabitants, who had gathered to watch her burn), the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. So the armies of Good and Evil are amassing, the Four Bikers of the Apocalypse are revving up their mighty hogs and hitting the road, and the world's last two remaining witch-finders are getting ready to fight the good fight, armed with awkwardly antiquated instructions and stick pins. Atlantis is rising, frogs are falling, tempers are flaring. . . . Right. Everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan.
Except that a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon -- each of whom has lived among Earth's mortals for many millennia and has grown rather fond of the lifestyle -- are not particularly looking forward to the coming Rapture. If Crowley and Aziraphale are going to stop it from happening, they've got to find and kill the Antichrist (which is a shame, as he's a really nice kid). There's just one glitch: someone seems to have misplaced him. . . .
First published in 1990, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's brilliantly dark and screamingly funny take on humankind's final judgment is back -- and just in time -- in a new hardcover edition (which includes an introduction by the authors, comments by each about the other, and answers to some still-burning questions about their wildly popular collaborative effort) that the devout and the damned alike will surely cherish until the end of all things.

Pratchett (of Discworld fame) and Gaiman (of Sandman fame) may seem an unlikely combination, but the topic (Armageddon) of this fast-paced novel is old hat to both. Pratchett's wackiness collaborates with Gaiman's morbid humor; the result is a humanist delight to be savored and reread again and again. You see, there was a bit of a mixup when the Antichrist was born, due in part to the machinations of Crowley, who did not so much fall as saunter downwards, and in part to the mysterious ways as manifested in the form of a part-time rare book dealer, an angel named Aziraphale. Like top agents everywhere, they've long had more in common with each other than the sides they represent, or the conflict they are nominally engaged in. The only person who knows how it will all end is Agnes Nutter, a witch whose prophecies all come true, if one can only manage to decipher them. The minor characters along the way (Famine makes an appearance as diet crazes, no-calorie food and anorexia epidemics) are as much fun as the story as a whole, which adds up to one of those rare books which is enormous fun to read the first time, and the second time, and the third time...

There is a distinct hint of Armageddon in the air. According to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (recorded, thankfully, in 1655, before she blew up her entire village and all its inhabitants, who had gathered to watch her burn), the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. So the armies of Good and Evil are amassing, the Four Bikers of the Apocalypse are revving up their mighty hogs and hitting the road, and the world's last two remaining witch-finders are getting ready to fight the good fight, armed with awkwardly antiquated instructions and stick pins. Atlantis is rising, frogs are falling, tempers are flaring. . . . Right. Everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan.
Except that a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon -- each of whom has lived among Earth's mortals for many millennia and has grown rather fond of the lifestyle -- are not particularly looking forward to the coming Rapture. If Crowley and Aziraphale are going to stop it from happening, they've got to find and kill the Antichrist (which is a shame, as he's a really nice kid). There's just one glitch: someone seems to have misplaced him. . . .
First published in 1990, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's brilliantly dark and screamingly funny take on humankind's final judgment is back -- and just in time -- in a new hardcover edition (which includes an introduction by the authors, comments by each about the other, and answers to some still-burning questions about their wildly popular collaborative effort) that the devout and the damned alike will surely cherish until the end of all things.

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