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Rating: 
Summary: An Excellent Guide to the Possible Future
Review: As a member of the financial industry, I'm always looking for hints as to which sectors of the market will do well in the future. This book is exactly what I was looking for. Using demographic trends, the authors have come up with some scenarios which will definitely change my outlook on the future.
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Summary: This is required reading for those who read about the future
Review: As an accountant and business teacher, I have long wondered about governement's indebted funds--Social Security Debt (at least 15 trillion in debt which is basically equivalent to the total value of American public stocks), Medicare Debt and other debts. This futurist book is one of the few that has been able to understand this. This futurist book is one of the few that even discusses this. What most people don't know is that the budget uses crooked accounting and count the social security and medicare and medicaid cash-in flows as revenue in the budget, but they don't expense the debt. The result of this is having a budget surplus, despite going futher into debt. Right now, we are at least 25 trillion in debt and it will likely get worse. However, when baby-boomers retire, the cash-in flows in these funds will be huge out-flows. So, even if the 5.7 trillion "budget" debt is taken care of by 2013 like Clinton says it will be, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid funds will go bankrupt at around that time too if we want to continue to use government for what it was more traditional used for like roads, schools, and police. There is simply not enough money to go around. Either we pay for social security and Medicare and Medicaid or we pay for roads, defense and welfare or we pay for the empty funds. If uncorrected, it will be the end of a free-market society and America will cause a global economic meltdown. I don't know, you decide what life will be like when the AARP, the most powerful interest group finds out that the social security and medicare and medicaid funds are bankrupt and cannot even come close to supporting themselves. This is the conclusion I have reached and if you disagree and have the data to back it up, I would love to hear from you at tingoglia@hotmail.com because I get too depressed even thinking about it. Or, heck, if you agree, you can e-mail me too. I HIGHLY RECCOMMEND THAT YOU READ THIS BOOK. Vote Republican or Libertarian.
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Summary: Gee, I wonder if the authors have any connection to Cato
Review: Imagine that you are perusing one of Yahoo's stock message forums, say symbol SSI and some guy with the moniker "catofan" posts a message like this: "CATO is going through the roof, sell SSI short, it's a Ponzi scheme and pile into CATO before it's too late!" What sort of credence would you give such a poster? For me, I wish I had hit the "Next" button, but no, I was unfortunate enough to buy the book. If you like regurgitated CATO Institute ideology, you'll love this book. Gems like: *Social Security is a Ponzi game; let's put all the SSI money in a safe place---like the stock market. *America has too many low paid workers; lets' do away with "destructive" minimum wages and give generous tax subsidies to employers that pay low wages instead. All written in the style of: "See Dick. See Jane. See Dick and Jane put all their retirement money in the stock market. See Dick and Jane go dumpster-diving in New Jersey for retirement." There are actually a few concepts about the Boomer generation that could be useful---when the Boomers all try to sell financial and real estate assets all at once to fund their retirements there *could* be a bear market, just like there are bull markets when they are all buying at the same time. However, most of the ideas in this book are like some kind of horrible pop song, repeated so much in the press that you find yourself almost unconciously humming along. Save yourself some money and time by surfing over to Cato to get "enlightened".
Rating: 
Summary: C'mon folks, it's not revolutionary!
Review: It's a good solid read that went REALLY fast -- too fast perhaps. The book is rather fluffy, when you get down to it. I could have learned as much from 5 pages of charts and tables and statistics and about 40 pages of essays on the data. Instead, this is written for the mass market, and mass-market are too easy. I like a more difficult read that makes me think. As far as financial books go, the trends are important, but not mind blowing either. Still, I rate it three stars. Even that's a little generous, i feel. The first four reviews, by the way, were submitted by the author's friends and family, very obviously. I suggest a little consumer backlash here -- demand a real review, or rate the article "NOT USEFUL." :)
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Summary: These guys "get it"
Review: Stephen Waite and Bill Sterling paint a picture for us clearly showing that baby boomers are doing to financial assets what they did to the real estate market in the 70's and 80's. Never before has this been better and more thoroughly explained than in Boomernomics. The authors walk us through the future in this well written book proving demography is destiny. Demographics alone would be a powerful force in the marketplace but we currently have technology and globalization on our side as well. The authors give us a well rounded thesis on why the market can go much higher than it is today and how government can help prolong this market climb by addressing the healthcare problem, the debt and social secutity issues. Harry Dent's "The Roaring 2000's" was a good second step in tackling the subject of demographics (The Great Boom Ahead being the first) but Sterling and Waite take it to the next level. They've taken a complicated subject and made it easy to understand so that we all might profit over the next decade and beyond from their years of Wall Street experience and exhaustive research on the subject. Everyone can benefit from reading this book, from students right through to retired persons. A copy should also be sent tho the most famous Baby Boomer of them all, the Boomer-In-Chief, President Bill Clinton
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Summary: Beware the Big Chill
Review: The aging of America has been in the news for the last few years but most stories only deal with the impact on the social security system. What people don't realize is that as boomers age they will also have a great impact on the real estate and financial markets as they sell their homes and assets so they can have a comfy retirement. The scenarios provided are compelling enough to make your heart sink. But this is not an alarmist book, they openly state that their scenarios are just hypothetical and many things can happen in the intervening years to mitigate the effects of the "Big Chill". Plus they provide some tips on how you can make money in the coming years by predicting which industries will get hot. If you want to read a very common sense book about the future of the American economy, this is it.
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Summary: Buy it.
Review: This book is awesome. Buy it. That's all there is I have to say about it.
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Summary: This book rocks
Review: This is the greatest book I've ever read. It gives great advice. BUY IT!
Rating:
Summary: A BRILLIANT WORK
Review: WAITE IS A GENIUS WHOS IDEAS ARE OUT OF THIS WORL
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