News of My Death- Was Greatly Exaggerated!: How I Survived the Texas Depression: My Financial Strategies for the '90s

Born and raised in Michigan, Hall became a successful real-estate entrepreneur there, then in the early 1980s moved to Dallas, where he continued his economic rise until disaster struck his adopted state. First oil and gas prices plummeted, later the real-estate market virtually collapsed and financial institutions started folding. Determined to avoid bankruptcy, according to Hall, he waged a long battle against green-mailers, officious federal bureaucrats, predatory creditors and others, emerging bloody but unbowed. Here he shows a talent for making complex economic maneuvers understandable to the lay reader. Further, Hall lays bare his teacherly soul when he explains the lessons he learned from his ordeals and lays out his strategies for the 1990s. The book is frank and of great interest, despite much annoying Texas boosterism. (Sept.)