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"Empire of debt" |
Atoc
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Joined: 18 Jan 2006
Posts: 9
Location: Kansas
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 Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 4:04 am Post subject: "Empire of debt" |
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I recently read “Empire of debt” by Bill Bonner, not that I thought I could learn anything new that didn’t already know, but because I heard they sent a free copy to every politician in congress, and was curious about what they would read if any of them bother. I found the book to be witty and amusing and especially liked the (very accurate in my view) part critiquing Thomas Friedman's (“The word is flat”) works.
Another older book of a similar context I’ll highly recommend is “The Coming Generational Storm” by Laurence J. Kotlikoff, Scott Burns.
I have followed John Mauldin for years, and always buy his books if for no other reason than as a way to thank him for all of his free and valuable commentary. The only thing about the great book “Bull's eye investing” that I found lacking was the absence of investment recommendations for the little (non hedge fund) guys. Don’t forget to buy his new book “Just one thing”!
I’m happy to see there are other Dune fans; I have read them all including the ones by his son. Fun Stuff! Can I highly recommend “The Quest” by Giorgio Kostantinos, all proceeds from this book go to charity, and it’s a thrilling search for the answers type premise!
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"Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood" |
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"Empire of debt" Replies |
Truthshark
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Joined: 08 Feb 2006
Posts: 1
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| Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 2:13 pm Post subject: Re: "Empire of debt" |
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| Atoc wrote: | | Can I highly recommend “The Quest” by Giorgio Kostantinos, all proceeds from this book go to charity, and it’s a thrilling search for the answers type premise! |
Certainly you can. However, no-one will take you seriously.
The recommendation post quoted above was likely written by the author of "The Quest" himself. Mr. Kostantinos has made a habit of spamming, shilling, and otherwise fraudulently promoting his book in as many online stores and discussion forums as he can manage. His book was banned this week from Amazon.com for the following violations of their policies: 1) Kostantinos created numerous phony online accounts, using them to write reviews (in some cases plagiarized from other reviewers), all of which end with a recommendation for his self-published book; 2) Using those same phony accounts to create fraudulent customer reviews of his own book, making it seem as if more people had read the book than have actually done so; 3) Abusing Amazon's "report this" feature to have any and all negative reviews of his boook removed from the site; 4) Posting fraudulent "editorial review" quotes praising his book from the likes of Stephen King, Dan Brown, Mystery Scene Magazine (a search of their database reveals no review of his book), the long-out-of-publication Saturday Review, and a New York Times Book Review writer who committed suicide in 1966; 5) Impersonating Amazon.com management in product information "blog posts"; 6) Claiming that all proceeds for his book go to benefit a charity called the Disasters Relief Fund--which does not exist. All searches on Google and in US Government databases turned up nothing on this so-called charity. The surmise is that Mr. Kostantinos is trying to boost his sales by making himself appear like a good guy.
Since his book was removed from Amazon, Mr. Kostantinos has been a busy man. He has started his tricks again on Barnes and Noble's website and numerous others. On some of these websites he has begun to make the dubious claim that The Quest is "Banned in the US"--which it is not, since the Ulysses court decision among others would prevent it by law (and if Mr. Kostantinos knew anything about publishing and/or literature, he would know this). Not to mention the fact that since it is readily available on B&N, it is available in America and therefore not "banned."
In short, Mr. Kostantinos is a fraud. A phony. A shill. His book is a waste of time, money, and valuable paper. Save yourselves the trouble of having to ask for your money back, and don't buy it. And don't believe the hype. |
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