Introduction
YOUR GUIDE TO THE SECOND EDITION OF AFTERSHOCK
This second edition of Aftershock contains a number of important updates and clarifications to the previous book. We have been fortunate to have received lots of excellent feedback and suggestions from our readers, much of which we have incorporated into this new book. Some important changes include more information regarding personal finance in Chapter 6 and Chapter 7, applying the broad macroeconomic views of the book to specific real-world concerns, such as retirement, annuities, underwater mortgages, 401Ks, municipal bonds, and the many ways to buy and own gold.
In another important change, we replaced the chapter on STEP Evolution in the original book with a new Chapter 9, discussing where we believe the real trouble lies underlying our current economic dilemma—with the field of economics, itself. The underlying problem goes beyond the actions of the Federal Reserve, or specific government officials, investment bankers, or Wall Street, although all share some blame. Much more fundamentally, our current problems reflect an underlying lack of knowledge in the economics community about our economy, what brought us here, and how to get out of it. At its core, what we are experiencing is a fundamental failure of the economics profession. In the new Chapter 9, we look at why this has happened and where we believe the field of economics should be moving to finally get a full understanding of how our economy really works. ...
