How to Profit in the Nextddepression

Economics historian King ( Human Behavior and Wall Street ) warns that one day soon``perhaps by the time you read this''Americans will wake up to find the stock market plunging, their own banks closed, shops running out of goods and history's worst depression at hand. This is because share prices have been bid up to ``ridiculous heights'' while real values of land and goods are falling, argues the author, with three-fifths of all consumer, corporate and government disbursements going to service ``a nuclear bomb'' of debt instead of increasing production. When the cyclical pendulum finally swings, King explains, panic will follow inevitable defaults in the outstanding debt$150 billion in ``merger-mania junk bonds,'' $350 billion in Latin American loans, $500 billion in corporate bonds, $600 billion in consumer debt and one trillion in municipal obligations (into which banks and pension plans put our money). Federal Reserve back-up funds, bank-deposit insurance and unemployment benefits will be swamped out of existence, asserts the author, but those who switch their money in time into gold and U.S. T-bills will find bargains galore in real estate. (August)