Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought this book after reading about in John Mauldin's newsletter. The demographic spending wave was a surprisingly simple yet lucid concept that intrigued me. It has been all downhill since then, including my subscription to Mr. Dent's newsletter. Buyers of this book and/or his "Boom & Bust" newslettter should ask themselves one question - if Mr. Dent is so good at predicting cliffs, why is he not filthy rich? If he is so good at seeing the impending doom, why has he not not made $20B a la John Paulson in each of the crises and booms he claims to have foreseen? Why is he living off his financial advice business. Google "Harry Dent net worth" and see what you come up with - nothing. Yep, it is not high enough to be worthy of discussion. But enough tough questions, on to lighter fare - the book itself. Because it is indeed light... on content. The same concept is repeated over and over again to "explain" all sorts of bubbles, with the caveat that for each bubble the model is adjusted with a number of ad-hoc factors. Mathematically inclined readers should remember what a true genius, John von Neumann, said a long time ago - give me four parameters and I will fit an elephant. Give me five, and I will make him wiggle his tail. I was going to write all this off as a few tens of $ spent on a poorly written book and a not particularly useful financial service, but a recent email from Mr. Dent's subscription service made me stand up and take notice. It was about sunspots. Yes ladies gentlemen, Dent Research has a new "wave". The returns of the stock market are correlated to the sunspot cycle?!?!? Until that email I thought that Mr. Dent is merely one of many financial advisers who oversell their ability to make money for you, but are a net good to a mostly financially illiterate populace. Now I am starting to think otherwise. Bottom line - spend your money elsewhere.