The Darien Times

Thursday at library: Darien’s Rickards talks ‘Currency Wars’

Last Updated on Tuesday, January 10, 2012 01:19 PM Written by The Darien Times
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 07:00 AM

Darien resident James Rickards will host a meet the author event at the library, on Thursday, Jan. 12, at 7, during which he will talk about his new book, "Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis."

Rickard's book, which is written for a general audience, focuses on the interaction of the international monetary system and national security. Rickard wrote "Currency Wars" in his studio on Ziegler's Cove in Darien, and it contains some local scenes, including what he describes as "an important meeting involving national security that took place at the 1020 Post Road Bistro in Darien."

Currency wars are one of the most destructive and feared outcomes in international economics, according to Rickards. At best, they offer the sorry spectacle of countries' stealing growth from their trading partners. At worst, they degenerate into sequential bouts of inflation, recession, retaliation, and sometimes violence. Left unchecked, the next currency war could lead to a crisis worse than the panic of 2008, Rickards writes.

In 1971, President Richard Nixon imposed national price controls and took the U.S. off the gold standard. The extreme measure was intended to end an ongoing currency war, which had destroyed faith in the U.S. dollar. Today there is a new currency war, and this time the consequences could be far worse than those that confronted Nixon, according to Rickards.

The book has garnered national attention, and has been cited and quoted by numerous presidential candidates during recent months. Since its release in early November, Currency Wars has since peaked at No. 28 on the New York Times Best Seller List for hardcover fiction, and has been called a "must-read book" by Mary Whaey, a critic for Booklist.

"Rickards, experienced financial adviser, investment banker, and risk manager, tells us we are in a new currency war that could destroy faith in the U.S. dollar; he examines that war through the lens of economic policy, national security, and historical precedent," Whaley wrote in an October review.

Barrett Bookstore will be on hand during the event to sell copies of "Currency Wars." Additional parking for the event will be available behind the Library in Thorndal Circle.

More info: 203-655-1234, DarienLibrary.org, additional evening and weekend parking is on Thorndal Circle behind Nielsen's

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