With much pleasure, I highly recommend Michael Pettis' newest book "The Great Rebalancing".

Pettis' book covers global trade issues with a focus on current events in Asia, Europe, the United States, and the commodity producing nations.

Read the book and you will see that much of the "common wisdom" espoused by others on global trade issues is not "wisdom" at all.

For example, in a chapter called "The Exorbitant Burden", Pettis debunks the nearly universal misconception that the United States receives a great benefit from having the world's reserve currency. That chapter alone, is well worth the price of many books.

Want to understand why the Eurozone is doomed as it now exists? Read Pettis' chapter "The Case For Europe".

Other reviews of "The Great Rebalancing" (all favorable) primarily focused on Pettis' predictions. Although I agree with most of his predictions, what's really important are the fundamental driving issues, not the predictions per se.

As far as solutions go, I prefer a return to a gold standard (a topic Pettis discusses while favoring something else). However, his book is primarily devoted to trade fundamentals, not global solutions, so disagreements (or agreements) on solutions are easily overlooked.

Michael Pettis at has taught me most of what I know about global trade. I also happen to believe he is the world's foremost expert on China in relation to trade and global macro events.

I give two thumbs up to "The Great Rebalancing".

Investment Ideas for Unconventional Times

Michael Pettis will be a speaker at an economic conference I am hosting on April 5th in Sonoma, California. For details, please see Wine Country Conference.

World-class speakers at the conference include John Hussman, Michael Pettis, Jim Chanos, John Mauldin, Mike "Mish" Shedlock, and Chris Martenson.

Yahoo! Finance Joins the Conference

I'm pleased to announce that Yahoo! Finance is joining the conference as our media partner. The wonderful Lauren Lyster, of Yahoo! Finance's Daily Ticker, will be moderating several of the panels for the day.

This is an experience not to be missed. The access you will have to these speakers and their insights doesn't happen easily. This is the first time many of these speakers have ever appeared together.

The event is made possible in part by a generous $100,000 matching grant by the John P. Hussman Foundation for the benefit of ALS Research.

For my personal experiences with ALS, please see My Wife Joanne Has Passed Away; Stop and Smell the Lilacs.

Hope to see you at the conference.