Riches Among The Ruins
Adventures In The Dark Corners Of The Global Economy
By: Robert P. Smith, Peter Zheutlin
Published: March 2009
Format: Hardcover, 243 pages
ISBN: 9780814410608
Publisher: Amacom/American Management Association
"On a single day in 1998, I lost $15 million in the ruins of the Russian economy", writes Founder and Managing Director of Turan Corporation and emerging market debt trader Robert P. Smith, in his entertaining and insightful book Riches Among The Ruins: Adventures In The Dark Corners Of The Global Economy. The author takes the reader on a rough and tumble thrill ride as he describes his colorful, and often very dangerous debt trading ventures in some of the developing world's most dangerous locations.
Robert Smith's deeply personal story, reads like a thrilling tale of a real life Indiana Jones, as the author sought profits from trading debt and investments of often dubious value. The fascinating accounts of conducting often dangerous business transactions in the darkest corners of such countries as Iraq, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Russia, describe the early emergence of a global financial market. The unregulated, and very often barely legal business dealings of Robert P. Smith, were the crude beginnings of the modern, and highly integrated globalization that forms the basis of the world economy today. Along the way, the author provides critical, first hand insights into the behind the scenes reality of global business transactions.
Robert P. Smith (photo left) recognizes that his chasing of profits among the war torn, and collapsing economies of the Third World may be seen as unsavory by many people. To his credit, he acknowledges that interpretation of his business activities. At the same time, however, the author's debt purchases and sales of very questionable debt obligations, helped create liquidity for many cash strapped companies and governments. The lessons learned by Robert Smith, and the economic tragedies he so vividly describes, are critical for understanding changes within the economy of the United States. The author shares compelling insights into how the evolution of the American economy from manufacturing to service based, and from a creditor nation to becoming the world's largest debtor nation, portend serious economic problems in the future. In this case, the experiences of the author serve as a warning and wake up call for American businesses and politicians.
For me, the power of the book is Robert P. Smith's unflinching account of his adventures in the early days of global financial markets, and how those experiences can help to avert potential financial disaster in the current globally interdependent markets. The author understands that the world where he trekked and traded may be gone in form, but the danger of economic collapse still exists in different forms. An economic meltdown in one part of the world can trigger economic panic on the other side of the globe within minutes. Robert P. Smith recognizes that markets move on emotion and social mood, making a panic in one or many countries a very real possibility. Despite the intricate monetary systems that exist today, the markets saw a meltdown in 2008. Robert Smith's experiences with economic disaster and collapse are essential lessons for everyone in the developed world, as glimpses into a possible tragic future. The stories in this important book may help to avert that nightmare scenario.
I highly recommend the must read and eye opening book Riches Among The Ruins: Adventures In The Dark Corners Of The Global Economy by Robert P. Smith to anyone seeking a behind the headlines treatment of how the world of international business really worked and how it operates today. The author also calls attention to how economic conditions in the United States, with its exploding international debt levels and widening gap between rich and poor, could lead to economic disaster in the very near future. This warning is an important one, and comes from an author who has seen economic collapse up close and personal, and its tragic effect on real people.
Read the international economics book that reads like a page turning adventure novel Riches Among The Ruins: Adventures In The Dark Corners Of The Global Economy by Robert P. Smith, and join the author as he seeks riches in the economic chaos of post-collapse Russia, Iraq before the fall of Saddam, in the dark streets of Vietnam, and many more exotic and dangerous locales. The book is a page turner, that contains critical economic lessons, and a prophetic warning about potential future economic problems in the United States, and for the globalized economy in which we all dwell. The book is a treasure trove of stories of profit and loss and of warnings of the on the ground reality of economic crisis. Robert P. Smith's past profit seeking adventures may indeed be our possible future.
