Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Get Clark Smart: The Ultimate Guide to Getting Rich from America's Money-Saving Expert by Clark Howard, Mark Meltzer ISBN: 0-7868-8777-X Publisher: Hyperion Press Pub. Date: April, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.08 (12 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: good consumer reference; NOT a get-rich guide
Comment: Clark Howard provides solid advice on topics such as buying a new or used car, buying a home, buying a computer, buying insurance. There's probably not much here you haven't seen elsewhere, but it is presented in a consolidated & readable fashion. The most useful part of the book is Howard's advice on documentation -- how to write effective letters & protect your rights in dealing with creditors and service providers. The focus of the book is much more on making informed purchasing decisions and on protecting your rights as a consumer than it is on getting rich.
Rating: 4
Summary: Great Advice!
Comment: Clark Howard gives excellent and detailed advice on many financial topics, from saving money with daily expenses to investing long-term. It's definately accessible to the average consumer as well.
My only complaint is that the book is not organized in a way that makes it easy to read through front-to-back. Rather, it's sort of a quick reference on a large number of topics with little or no transition between topics. But if that's what you're looking for, it does its job well!
Rating: 1
Summary: Refuted nonsense
Comment: Empirically, this book fails badly. Howard argues that prices and wages do not fall enough in response to reductions in demand. Yet he wrote this in the midst of a massive deflation. Other deflations came and passed without the high and persistent unemployment of the second Bush era as well. This obviously proves that his general theory is at best a special case. But it fails as that too. Howard argues that decreased demand cause persistent unemployment. He denies that monetary policy is as important as spending. Yet, shifts in the money supply correlate well with depressions. Also, at the close of Iraq war, Howardians predicted another great depression in 2003 due to massive decreases in government spending for armaments. They are clearly wrong, and this is very damaging to Howard's case. If his 'effective demand' hypothesis is correct, there should have be a depression in 2003.
The empirical failings of this book should come as no surprise. Howard paid very little attention to data in this book. Instead, he focused, as the title implies, on theory. Unfortunately, his theory is utterly incoherent. His central hypothsis is his 'Principle of Effective Demand.' He lays out the main variables involved here on page 29. This principle supposedly refutes Say's law of Market. Howard claims that total spending can fail to generate full employment. This happens when total savings exceeds total investment. Howard throws out a series of supporting arguments in the remainder of this book, none of which hold water.
A key supporting argument is that investors will hold cash when interest rates fall. This cash holding supposedly causes demand to fall. The truth is that investors do not hold cash, but instead hold their money in some form of asset in financial markets, even when they are speculating over future bond prices. In the absence of legal restrictions money stays in the financial system and circulates- Say's Law of Markets holds the principle of effective demand fails. Depositors did withdraw money from banks- during the banking panics that began in November of 1930. These panics were an effect of a slowdown that had already existed for more than a year, not the cause of the slowdown itself. Howard had this causality backwards. He merely refers to the 'marginal efficiency of capital' and ignores the critical issue of time preference. Howard had capital theory explained to him, personally, by a great economist- Friedrich von Hayek. Yet, he was never able to grasp the simple truth that people save money today, not because of some mysterious "marginal propensity to save", but because they want to defer some consumption to the future and earn interest in the process.
In his world, capital markets have no rational basis to them. 'Animal Spirits' drive investing, not expected profits. 'Marginal propensities' drive saving, not intertemporal consumer choice. Instead of addressing these issues in a cogent way, Howard concocted catchy phrases, like 'the dark forces of time and uncertainty'. Colorful writing is good enough for fiction, but serious social theory needs far more than that.
His irrationalist view of markets stands in contrast to his view of government. He merely assumes that public officials will stabilize the economy via some socialization of investment. He seemed to actually believe that government officials seek simply to promote the general welfare, rather than to seek political gain by catering to special interests. His naive view of government clearly contradicts the historical record.
The absurdities of this book served as an excuse for increasing government spending to stimulate the economy (rather than to provide basic public services). It also led to expansionary monetary policies that gave us the post war inflations that so many suffered from. The General Theory is second only to Das Kapital in terms of promoting economic failure. This is not because its' ideas were misapplied, it is because it contradicts the reality that it was applied to. Rather than being a general theory, it is peculiar set of incoherent arguments that apply to no time and no place.
Today, so called New Howardians have assured that Howard's fame will endure a while longer. But when one examines the arguments of these New Howardians it is quite apparent that they reject the spending approach of Howard and embrace price and wage theory. The Economics profession has rejected its' nonsensicle arguments, and rightly so.
 |
Title: Clark's Big Book of Bargains: Clark Howard Teaches You How to Get the Best Deals by Mark Clark/Meltzer Howard ISBN: 0786887788 Publisher: Hyperion Pub. Date: 23 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
 |
Title: Get Clark Smart : The Ultimate Guide for the Savvy Consumer by Clark Howard, Mark Meltzer ISBN: 1563526298 Publisher: Longstreet Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
 |
Title: Clark Howard's Consumer Survival Kit III by Clark Howard, Mark Meltzer ISBN: 1563525062 Publisher: Longstreet Press Pub. Date: March, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
 |
Title: 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Improve Your Personal Finances: How to Spend Less, Save More, and Make the Most of What You Have by Ilyce R. Glink ISBN: 0812927427 Publisher: Three Rivers Press Pub. Date: 22 May, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
 |
Title: Cheap Talk with the Frugal Friends: Over 600 Tips, Tricks, and Creative Ideas for Saving Money by Angie Zalewski, Deana Ricks ISBN: 1892016583 Publisher: Starburst Publishers Pub. Date: November, 2001 List Price(USD): $9.99 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
