Rating: 
Summary: Something there, but Take with a Grain of Salt
Review: On first blush Harry Dent looks like a genius. After all, years before everyone talked mutual funds and daytrading he predicted a stock market bonanza. What's easy to forget, though, is that in his earlier book (admittedly, I only read one and it was years ago so I'm a little sketchy on the details) there were lots of predictions--such what would happen to Asian economies-- which turned out to be way off the mark. No doubt, there is something to Dent's boomers- leading-the-economic-boom theory, but any theory that simplicistic, is well, overly simplicistic. I, for one, wouldn't throw caution to the wind and take his recommendations blindly. For an excellent book on creating a truly satisfying financial life (both fiscally and emotionally) no matter what happens in the coming millenium, check out my new favorite recommendation: The Mindful Money Guide. It succicntly, but comprehensively covers a wide range of money issues; The author isn't afraid to take a stand. Don't let the serious-sounding title scare you, it's entertaining.
Rating: 
Summary: Look beyond this year and this still makes a lot of sense
Review: It may seem odd, even perverse to give a positive review to a ragingly optimistic book at the current time (the start of the second half of 2001). Originally published in 1998, Dent's relentlessly optimistic book will turn off some sober readers by his somewhat breezy style and dramatic and sweeping claims. Yet, much of the foundation of this book's case for a prolonged economic boom lasting until 2009 in the U.S. (and later in some European countries) lies in respected academic work such as the books Generations, and The Fourth Turning. Dent's message boils down to an argument that predictable generational spending waves coming with a combination of generational innovation and implementation will combine with a range of information technologies and biotechnologies to propel a sustained boom. The current downturn does not refute his thesis, unless it becomes protracted.
The Roaring 2000s is aimed at a general readership, including anyone wanting to understand the major changes ahead and how to take advantage of them. Dent makes some dubious assertions, perhaps over-applying his driving forces, so the book needs to be read with a critical eye. Still, the major forces behind his claims seem to be real and compelling. Business strategists who skim this book may find that it makes sense of the current turbulence and helps them plan for the decade ahead. At the very least, Dent's irrepressible optimism can only do you good in today's gloomy business conditions.
Rating: 
Summary: This time around Dent's predictions are completely wrong.
Review: Harry Dent poses as an economist but he is not. He also poses as a demographer but he is not either. As a consequence, he develops sweeping broadbased theories without solid scientific foundation. His main theme is that the large Baby Boom generation is going through its peak spending years during this decade, and as a result it will sustain an economic and stock market boom until 2009. He concludes that it is almost certain that the stock market will earn 10% and above returns throughout this decade. However, when you look at the record so far, Harry Dent's prediction in 1999 for the first decade of 2000's is way off. The ink was barely dry on his book when the stock market actually peaked (first quarter of 2000) and then tanked. The stock market then suffered a three year bear market. Current outlook for the stock market is for increased volatility, but reduced growth in the single digit range (not the double digit range, Dent predicted). Dent missed a lot of things. Some of them he could not have predicted such as heightened geopolitical risk, terrorism. Some other factors, he should have predicted. These included the overvaluation of stocks as a result of the Internet Bubble, the onset of World deflation associated with the flooding of cheap exports from China, the eventual slow down of the U.S. economy among others. Dent also pauses as a futurist. In this role, he just repeats what Alvin Toffler stated in Future Shock almost 30 years ago. Technology will reform the workplace, will boost economic productivity, etc... Nothing new or informative here. The only somewhat valuable part of this book includes several recommendations for successful investing, including:
1) Save at least 10% of your salary;
2) Use buy and hold strategies, don't try to time the market;
3) Use mutual funds to most efficiently diversify your holdings;
4) Use asset allocation. The greatest returns result from the correct asset allocation. Asset allocation should match your personal risk tolerance; and
5) Invest systematically not emotionally. However, the author did not support these good investment strategies with adequate useful details. For instance, using a 401K is the best and easiest way to implement all of his five strategies mentioned above. Also, within his mutual fund recommendation, he did not mention the advantages of index funds (greater diversification, lower cost). Thus, he omitted much information for this section of the book to be as informative as it could have.
Rating:
Summary: Has some fine observations, but is overly optimistic.
Review: The book contains some insightful points about the underlying forces that drive economies such as ours. I really liked the way he fused together a good argument using population dynamics (alternating generation cycles) and market penetration of new technologies (S-Curves) for why we may experience a boom in the early 2000's. Another good observation on Dent's part (although he struggles to explained it at first) is what he terms the new network organization model for business. His chapter on spotting real-estate trends was informative, so was the last chapter on investment strategies. Some of the things I didn't like (and why I didn't give the book a higher rating): 1) Constant references to his last book regarding key ideas and terminology. 2) Lack of specific references for further independent research (this really hurts his arguments for he cites many studies throughout the text) 3) What appears to be a lack of consideration for some other historical events that spurred change (for example WWII had a major role in the spurring of certain new technologies). 4) His incredible optimism that events will unfold exactly as described, in the time frame mentioned. 5) Some parts of the book seem either like old news or self-evident (see his explaination on page 251 of why some declining neighborhoods regenerate). Overall, it's a good read and one will find Dent's ideas and philosophy interesting. I hope his vision comes true (for all of us).
Rating:
Summary: Long of optimism, short of documentation
Review: If you are a bull, the Harry Dent's book is the one you want to read. If you are looking for facts to support the many conclusions he draws, then you should probably look somewhere else. I found a number of the theories Dent advances to be fascinating, and it has even caused me to rethink some of thoughts I have in relation to my own work. And I am happy to have this book to put into my personal library. But..... I was surprised by the complete lack of footnotes or other documentation to support some of the assertions made. In a book that uses, and needs to use, so many statistics and charts to support its claims I found that a little disconcerting. For example: Dent describes a "500 year cycle of change" (starting page 93) as if for millenia every 500 years there have been huge changes, but he fails to ever goe back further than 500 years to show a true cycle. This makes his parallel between movable type and the transistor strained at best. From page 171: "The fact is, DNA research has shown that 70 percent of the population has a risk averse gene." Excuse me, whose research? What makes this a fact? Is that the same research that found the meteorite on Antartica and determined it had come from Mars 60,000 years ago? These are just two examples of the many I could use to illustrate my points. Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed reading this book and I would read it again. Dent has analyzed population trends, the Internet, and history in a way no others (that I've read) has. The calls he has made have been for the long term and he has also predicted both bull and bear cycles. I just wish he had made it easier for me to believe him.
Rating:
Summary: The Knaves and their New Economy
Review: Harry Dent couples an investment advisory book with a piecemeal economic analysis of the dynamics of the so called 'New Economy' in the 21st century. The author Harry Dent may drool blissfully over his portfolio (which at the time 1998 was probably doing quite well) and see a world of compounding returns and infinite growth, but we live in a real world of scarce resources and measured productivity gains which usually grow marginally each year. One thing that I find anecdotal was the chapter on human development entitled the 'The Right Brain Revolution,' which appealed to the kooky materialism of Abraham Maslow. This was just a rehashing of tired humanistic theories over man's wants and needs. First to give a background to this book: it was written in 1998-which in Greenspan rhetoric may be deemed a time of "irrational exuberance"-so not suprisingly the author was blissfully optimistically over a booming economy. In reality there was a long-term inflationary boom coupled with a strong market for IPO's and tech stocks. Of course, the speculative bubble burst. Contrary to the harbingers of infinite economic growth, there are no new dynamics to the so called "New Economy." If companies hemorrhage money on spending-showing no prospects for profit in their foreseeable future-than they'll probably be restructuring, going out of business, or solve their insolvency problem by merging with a larger firm. Generally, the present recession has made those who believe that there are some new rules to the game come to retreat from their Alice and Wonderland economics. Granted, we're not going to be in this recession forever contrary to the prophets of eternal economic gloom. However, there are NO new rules for a "New Economy" where profit margins can be razor thin, earnings simply non-existent and profit/equity ratios are absurdly proportioned. So, now we can come back to the real world of 2003, where high government spending and half-trillion dollar deficits crowd out the supply of credit and capital. Dent is optimistic over the labor market giving way to 'entrepreneurs,' freelancers and temps. However, it is by no means a positive sign when corporations are taking the axe to their personnel that we're in for more prosperity. In addition, some of Dent's positive economic indicators and his analysis are erroneous. For example, he sees large population growth as some positive sign that with more people, they'll be more consumption and consumer spending. But consider that in recent years, GDP growth aside, actual productivity gains have been miniscule and sometimes actually losses over the previous year. Moreover, the population growth (chiefly fueled by immigration) far exceeds productivity growth. So how is this deemed a positive sign if they're less goods and services available on per capita basis? These factors which shade the real 'New Economy,' may suggest that we will be in the economic doldrums for a little while longer. Dent ignores substantive economic indicators, which even in 1998 could have foretold the present recession. If anything, it is quite tenable that the first decade of the 21st century may resemble the stagflation of the 1970s-where inflation and unemployment are high-though not with such severity. All things considered, the blissful optimism and absurd economic logic so popular which fueled the speculative boom circa 1998 was but a foreshadowing of the present dreary state of economic affairs. The prosperity gurus will never be able to transcend common-sense economic logic with their gospel of eternal economic optimism. Then again, their perspectives are skewed in times of boom when all they see are compounding equity returns. It just seems when some people have a run of luck in the market, they have a tendency to have their judgment clouded in seeking out more 'easy money.' Some like Dent even hope to jerry-rigged the market with a psychology of perpetual prosperity. Anyway, Dent's bullish predictions have already been disproven. (I give it a pithy 0.5/5.0 star rating ...
Rating:
Summary: A Bubble product
Review: Dent is so out of reality here. This book is a waste of money, time.He does not have any grasp of how the markets work.
This is one of the worst books I've ever read if not the worst.
Stay away from it and the hype that surounds it.
Rating: 
Summary: See the Big Picture & STOP your WHINING
Review: Dr Dent's book is a "one-stop shopping" mini-MBA course in 3 key areas of human studies:
(1)Economics: how birth-waves drive economic patterns & outcomes
(2)Human Consciousness: the evolution of Human Consciousness as tied to ascending living standards in The West
(3)Technology: communication & learning patterns in knowledge-intense organizations Dr Dent has made an extremely important contribution with this book to the collective group of entrepreneur-economist-thinkers (EET's) of today. Anyone who reads these kinds of books is an EET who is either already in (or will soon be in) a position of leadership/ownership over The West's business infrastructure. It's cutting-edge, very sharp minds like Dent's that light the way for all the rest of us who are willing to pay a price to do the work. And, the problems of dot-bombs & terrorism aside, I must at this time pointedly counter the negativity of the many previous reviewers and readers who have recently "lost their shirts" in the stock market & who are predictably scoffing at Dent's positivism like an armchair quarterback. Here goes... It's a poor business decision for a business to "outsource" its core business activities; context yes, but core -- NO. Dent points out that in today's Knowledge Economy, each individual has now become her own small business -- regardless of whether she's W2 or 1099. All so here we have all of these professional people who have mindlessly "outsourced" their financial future to a group of mutual fund managers that they've never met (via their 401-k, and these fund managers are strictly fixed salary with NO bonus incentives based on trading volume or gains/losses for their customers). After contemplating the simple truth that their pain is actually self-inflicted, I would ask that they not blame Dent for their obvious lack of financial intelligence. They made their bed & so now it's time to go lay down in it. Read Robert Kiyosaki's "Rich Dad's Guide to Investing" to prevent a repeat of history. In closing, Dent took a risk by offering "specifics" when it comes to predicting the stock & real-estate markets. To do so is to "live & die by the sword". But atleast Dent is man enough to admit mistakes. So don't throw out the whole book because of any small disagreements with specific predictions. His overall presentation has value & is a SIGNIFICANT contribution to modern business literature.
Rating:
Summary: Stay Away! All of Dent's Stuff Will Bankrupt You!
Review: As of the Oct. 9, 2002 stock market low, ALL of the market gains since 1990 have been totally wiped out! Notice how most of the ratings for this book have been negative for quite a while and the postive reviews over the past 18 months have obviously been from beginning investors. Dent's simplistic advice is built around only demographics, a financially fatal strategy. Seek out Charles Minter, look for David Tice of prudent bear. I agree with earlier review, read Sy Harding's book. Ignore all of Harry Dent's stuff.
Rating: 
Summary: Pop goes the bubble
Review: Even before the wild melt down that started the year this wildly optimistic book came out, it was quite possible to read Dent's model as simplistic. He has taken one very valid insight - that demographic booms, particularly the baby boom, can drive economic growth, and focused on it to the exclusion of all else. He feels the demographics cause all other factors(inflation, entrepreneurship, interest rates, etc.) and believes that a predictable pattern is clear. Well, Harry, what's your portfolio worth now compared to 1/1/00? So much for predictability. Remember Warren Buffet, who said that economic forecaster's main role in business was to make fortune tellers look good.
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