In his new book THE GREAT DEPRESSION AHEAD author Harry S. Dent, Jr. outlines these trends in startling detail, and from a wider perspective than merely one political season. Having successfully predicted the crash of Fall 2008 years ago, Dent was also the author of The Great Boom Ahead, published in 1992 (see below), when he stood virtually alone in forecasting the unanticipated boom of the 1990s. And now he is saying that the party is over. Dent holds a Harvard MBA, is a Fortune 100 consultant, and is president of the HS Dent Foundation, whose mission to help business leaders understand change. His analytical techniques have allowed him to predict economic trends with unprecedented accuracy, which is why this latest book is such an eye-opener, and is narrated by the author himself on audio.
	In The Great Boom Ahead, Harry S. Dent explains the critical importance of understanding the impact of demographics on economic cycles. Dent has successfully correlated population statistics and "stage of life" waves to recessions and booms. Dent’s premise is that a growing population creates economic demands that must be served. Individuals also go through predictable spending patterns during their lifetimes. For example, during the college years, most people don’t have high disposable incomes for spending. During the middle twenties and thirties, people are building their families and households. During the mid forties, people tend to acquire more elaborate homes. During their fifties and thereafter, people tend to reduce their spending to save for and budget through retirement.
	Through his simple, effective 5-STEP ACTION PLAN, renowned tax advisor Ed Slott explains in clear-cut laymen’s terms what you need to know and do now to insure your financial future, including: protecting your retirement plans from excessive taxation; tapping retirement funds for emergency cash without penalty; passing on more of your wealth to your family; getting the most out of the latest lax laws; and creating the perfect estate plan, and much more! With trillions of dollars invested in retirement accounts across the country, this book is for every American planning on retiring.
	An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a mutual fund that’s traded like a stock - that is, throughout the day, in real time, during regular stock market operating hours. When you buy or sell a regular mutual fund, the mutual fund company uses the price at the end of the trading day. ETFs run the gamut from general funds based on indexes to highly specialized ETFs, such as those that focus on narrow slices of medicine. If you are familiar with investing and want to learn more about ETF funds and ETF portfolios, then this is the book for you. For a while, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were the hot new investment. If you’re new to investing, you may not know what ETFs are. How can you decide whether ETFs will meet your investing needs?  ETFs became particularly popular after the mutual fund scandal of the early 2000s, when mutual fund insiders traded mutual funds outside of the designated times and broke the law doing it. Many investors moved away from mutual funds after the scandal.
	A sophisticated guide to today’s hottest investment vehicle - exchange traded funds. The ETF Strategist is aimed primarily at investment advisers and sophisticated retail investors who are interested in using exchange traded funds, or using them more effectively than they already do. Compared with mutual funds, ETFs can offer a better way to diversify risk, target specific sectors or countries, avoid style drift, and maintain a specific asset allocation that might include real estate or commodities.  Previous ETF books have focused on their mechanics, regulation, and other basic information. But The ETF Strategist goes much further, showing how ETFs can improve many aspects of an overall investment strategy. It explores advanced concepts such as alphabetic separation, which basically means "don’t confuse skill with risk." And it shows how different ETFs can be combined to find the ideal balance of risk and potential reward.

This Recommended Reading does not constitute an endorsement by F&PA of any of the authors or publications.  The opinions expressed in these publications are solely those of the author and may or may not be representative of our opinion.