getAbstract Summary: Get the key points from this book in less than 10 minutes.

This book is a bold attempt to predict not only the next several decades, but also the next several centuries – at one point, author Harry S. Dent prognosticates about the year 2400. As he mentions, however, he did predict Japan's 1990s economic slump and the U.S. boom that began in 1998. If you are a believer, take cover, because now Dent's predictions are not so rosy. He foresees a major depression followed by a long period of slow growth. He is singing with the great chorus of economic pundits and prophets, the preponderance of whom seem to be chanting a dirge. However, Dent predicts several encouraging points of light in the very long tunnel ahead, and a great new boom starting about 2020–2023. His methodology is distinctive, though not unique. He anchors his analysis in demographic and technology cycles. Readers might or might not share his faith in the existence and predictability of these cycles, keeping in mind that good advice in the past is not an accurate predictor of the future. However, getAbstract notes that even readers who scoff at the notion that one can predict developments over a centuries-long scale might find the author's methodology useful and his investment recommendations worth considering.

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Copyright © 2008 by Harry S. Dent, Jr.

Reprinted by permission of Free Press, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., N.Y.