Reviewer's note
To Korean readers
introduction

Chapter 1: The Gold Massacre: The Prelude to the War for the Dollar

The Full Story of the 'April 12 Gold Massacre' | April 15th: The First Extreme Fear in 2 Million Years in the Gold Market | 'Chinese Bullionists' Counterattack Wall Street | London Gold Market: Noble Class, Secret Activities | The Rapid Expansion of the Swiss Gold Market | New York Gold Market: A Cowboy's Paradise, a Gambler's Paradise | QE3 Creates a Massive Wave, Shaking the US Dollar's Status | A Fierce Competition to Devalue Currency Among Advanced Countries | Currency 'Revolts' Aimed at the Impending Dollar | Germany Repatriates Its Reserves | Chain Reaction: The Bank of England's Self-Produced Play Using the Queen | The EU's Open Looting Spreads Fear Among Cyprus Depositors | COMEX Gold Inventory on Red Alert | Inventory Suspicions | Gold ETFs: The 'Slush Funds' of Wall Street Bigwigs | Inside Story | A Preliminary Look at the Future of Gold and Silver | Conclusion

Chapter 2: The Truth Revealed Beyond the Bubble Space

Black Eagles in the Stock Market | Why Ben Bernanke Was So Shocked | Is the US Stock Market a Real Boom or a False Prosperity? | The Real Reason for Share Buybacks | What is the Future of Debt-Buying Stocks? | The Growing Problem of Corporate Asset Aging | The Future of the Stock Market After Removing Respirators | The Bond Market in Turmoil | Shrinking Corporate Bond Inventories, Market Makers in Crisis | Junk Bonds: The "Subprime Mortgage Loans" of Corporate Bonds | Conclusion

Chapter 3: The Money Drought and the Reality of Shadow Banking

A shower of rain on Wall Street, the Syrian civil war | Repos: Transactions using bonds as collateral | June's nightmare in the repo market | The traditional banking system's money creation principles | A new concept in currency: 'shadow money' | Re-collateralization: The trick of sealing multiple bottles with a single lid | 'Repo maturity' transactions: A new trick for financial magicians | Junk bonds' 'fantastic drift' | Shadow money and shadow banking | The scale of shadow money creation in the repo market | The causes of the June money drought | Conclusion

Chapter 4: The 'Final Judgment' Caused by the Asset Collapse

Ben Bernanke's capriciousness has eroded the Fed's tapering policy | The QE Titanic crashes into the RP iceberg | BIS regulations worsen the collateral asset shortage | How can shadow banks break through the layers of encirclement? | Interest rate distortion: The game in which the Fed plays both referee and goalkeeper | Interest rate volcano: The ultimate killer of asset bubbles | Interest rate swaps: The wounded New Yorkers | The dark hand behind the Detroit bankruptcy | Interest rate swaps: A rate 'trap' | The origin of Libor | Who manipulates interest rates? | The ultra-low interest rate policy that created the largest asset bubble in history | Ending QE or continuing it, that is the question | Conclusion

Chapter 5: The Changing Landscape: The Rise of Wall Street Real Estate Speculators

Foreclosures: The Root Cause of Declining Real Estate Prices | Foreclosure Moratorium: A Shortcut to Calming the Real Estate Downturn | The Wall Street Real Estate Speculators' Scheme to Reverse Real Estate Prices | Phoenix, the First Test Site | A Big Gamble in the 'Gambling City' | Traveling Through Southern California | Blackstone, America's Largest Landlord | Who Are the Victims of the Wall Street Real Estate Speculators' Scheme? | Has the Real Estate Market Revived, or Are We Still in a Dream? | The 'Kangaroo Tribe': A New Trend Among Millennials | The Interest Rate Volcano That Will Soon Ignite the Real Estate Market | The Fatal Trap of Invitation Homes | The Great Escape Route | The Second Exit: Rental-Backed Securities | Conclusion

Chapter 6: Wealth Polarization and the Lost American Dream

A President Shunned on Wall Street | The Volcker Rule | The London Whale Story | The Lawless and the Lawless | The Decline of the Middle Class | The Current State of the American Job Market | A House Built on Rock or a House Built on Sand? | The Growing Wealth Polarization: The American Dream Crushed | A Dream Trampled by Greed | Wealth Inequality Worse Than Income | Conclusion

Chapter 7: The Decline and Fall of Ancient Rome, Marked by Greed

The Death of the Tribune Gracchus | The Rise of Gracchus | The Land Reform of the Gracchus Brothers | The Roman Republic: Founded by Diligence, Overthrown by Greed | The Transition from Internal Plunder to External Expansion | The Monetary Economy of the Roman Empire | The Weakened Monetary Circulation System | The Latent Economic Crisis | The Economic Nature of Military Dictatorship | Currency Devaluation and Hyperinflation | The Collapse of the Monetary System: The End of the Roman Empire | Conclusion

Chapter 8: The Fall of the Northern Song Dynasty: The Dark Side Hidden Behind the Glamour

The Northern Song Dynasty, the dynasty that blossomed the second monetary civilization in human history | Liquidity overload and inflation | The rise of the bankers | The struggle between money and power | The 6-7% of the wealthy own 60-70% of the land | The collapse of the Northern Song dream | The 'money drought' that made matters worse | The reasons for the failure of Wang Anshi's reforms | The final whirlwind of greed | The world's first paper money, the dumplings | Unstoppable greed | Conclusion

Chapter 9: What the China Dream Isn't

Lessons from the Roman Dream, the Song Dream, and the American Dream's Downfall | America's Second Wealth Concentration | What the China Dream Isn't | Real Estate and Income Distribution | The Key to Urbanization: Job Creation | Land Transfer and Farmer Income | A Strong Faith Makes Dreams Come True

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Translator's Note
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The current crisis is just the prologue!
A classic economic outlook that reveals in detail the power of money to determine the downfall of a nation.

Beginning the fifth story in the series, the author opens with a microscopic analysis of the global economy, particularly the United States.
Before the 2008 global financial crisis, the top 10% of Americans held over 50% of national income.
According to Song Hongbing, if the wealthiest 10% of the population owns more than 50% of the national income, the situation cannot be changed by institutional forces unless war or revolution breaks out.
The problem is that the economic crisis that occurred at this time is not unique to the United States, and there is a high possibility that other countries will follow in the same footsteps as the United States.
And now, around the world, there is keen interest in who will be swept up in the storm of this crisis first.
Accordingly, chapters 1 through 6 examine with microscopic precision the aspects of the American economy, which is intoxicated by the false happiness created by the asset bubble.

Chapter 1 examines the background of the 'April 12 Gold Massacre,' America's true intentions, and the root cause of the dollar's plight.
The April 12 Gold Massacre was an incident in which the United States, which had been pursuing quantitative easing policies and issuing excessive amounts of dollars, intentionally caused the price of gold futures to plummet in order to prevent the value of its own currency from falling.
Song Hongbing emphasizes that during the same period, a gold hoarding frenzy swept the world, starting with the activities of the Zhongguodama (Chinese women's brigade), and asserts that even if all other currencies lose their vitality, gold will survive to the end.
Chapter 2 explores the question, “Why is the U.S. stock market steadily rising, but the economic recovery is sluggish?”
The principle that caused this contradiction is surprisingly simple.
If quantitative easing continues for a long time, the returns from rising asset prices will exceed the returns from the real economy, and as this gap widens, funds will not flow into the real economy but will instead pursue only the increase in asset value.
This is in line with the abnormal structure of the U.S. bond market that led to a flood of bad debt.

Chapter 3 provides detailed examples of how even a slight rise in interest rates can have a significant impact on the world's financial systems, which are tightly bound together by asset-backed chains.
Chapter 4 reveals that asset prices continue to rise despite all efforts by central banks around the world to prevent interest rate hikes, and warns that an interest rate volcano erupting and asset collapse are imminent.
Chapter 5 focuses on the U.S. real estate market.
In March 2012, the six-year U.S. housing bear market finally came to an end thanks to the banks' moratorium on foreclosures and the efforts of Wall Street real estate speculators, who, with the support of the U.S. government and through the mediation of five major real estate companies, swept up the region's foreclosed housing stock.
Song Hongbing points out that while financial means can induce short-term changes in market prices, it is difficult to maintain the trend over the long term, and he diagnoses that the outlook for the real estate market is bound to be bleak given that young people, who are potential home buyers, are struggling with unemployment and the pressure of student loan repayment.
Chapter 6 examines the root causes of the tenfold increase in U.S. debt in just 30 years.
Since the fiscal deficit is the result of tax evasion by the wealthy who own more than 50% of the wealth, the decline in the value of the currency can be seen as a result of the greed of financial power and the concentration of wealth.

If you are living in an inflationary era
Crisis Patterns We Must Examine

Who will survive and how?

In the latter part of the book, Song Hongbing expands the reader's perspective to 2,000 years ago, looking back on the rise and fall of Rome and the Northern Song Dynasty.
This is to remind us of the eternal truth that 'when greed flourishes, wealth concentration occurs, which further depletes the people's financial resources, and eventually civil war and foreign exchange follow.'

Chapter 7 focuses on dissecting the greed of the ruling class in ancient Rome, the first country in human history to experience the golden age of a monetary economy.
It shows in detail all the destructive consequences brought about by the greed of the ruling class, including land concentration, tax imbalance, financial depletion, currency devaluation, economic stagnation, asset inflation, class conflict, military corruption, internal and external troubles, and the downfall of the empire.
Chapter 8 examines the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty, which enjoyed the greatest wealth and prosperity in Chinese history.
The Northern Song Dynasty's economy was four times larger than that of the Tang Dynasty at its peak, and the urbanization rate reached nearly 12%.
The monetary economy also developed to a level unprecedented in feudal history.
It issued the world's first national credit-backed banknote, "Gyoja," and also established a financial bill market.
The Northern Song Dynasty, an economic powerhouse during the feudal era, also collapsed due to the extreme gap between rich and poor, just like the Roman Empire.
As the political systems lost their ability to self-correct, the same problems emerged in Rome and the Northern Song: land annexation, tax imbalances, fiscal deficits, currency devaluation, civil wars, and foreign exchange. Even the order in which crises occurred was the same.
As long as human greed remains unchanging, history will continue to repeat itself.

Naturally, the first to spark the land acquisition craze were the high-ranking nobles.
This group, which had the power to seize land, used clever methods to seize large quantities of peasant land.
Not only did they 'occupy only the fertile lands', they did not leave the common lands alone either.
State-owned ranches, school fields, and public forests became their targets, and they even had their eyes on temples' "fortune fields."
When a famine struck and people had difficulty making a living, they had no choice but to give up their land as collateral or sell it for a low price.
(…) Bankers, merchants, and large landowners who had amassed enormous wealth also joined the ranks of land annexation under the instigation of the bureaucracy, fearing to be left behind.
Although the group of 'rich people who were entitled to buy land' was a latecomer, they later overtook the bureaucratic class, who were the first movers, and took a leading position in land annexation.
(…) During the Northern Song Dynasty, the wealthy class, including bureaucrats, bankers, merchants, and large landowners, accounted for only 6-7% of the total population.
However, they occupied 60 to 70 percent of the country's land and seized more than half of the country's total wealth.
_Main text, pages 504-505

A book that examines the physiology of money flowing upwards and the conflicting futures it presents.

Chapter 9 examines China's ambitions to realize its China Dream, even amid the Ukraine crisis and a strong dollar.
Song Hongbing first talks about what should be 'avoided' in the process of realizing the China Dream, drawing lessons from the collapse of the Roman Dream, the Northern Song Dream, and the American Dream.


A society where a small number of powerful people control power and the elite are greedy is not the China Dream.
A society where social wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few and the gap between rich and poor is wide is not the China Dream.
A society with unreasonable tax burdens and a deficit in national finances is not the China Dream.
A society where currency values ​​depreciate and asset prices soar is not the China Dream.
A society where the people's wealth is depleted and internal and external troubles continue is not the China Dream.
_Page 554 of the text

Next, he presents specific measures to help realize the China Dream, which is worth listening to, considering the influence of the Currency War series in China, which has set new records such as 'selling over 5 million copies' and 'the fastest-selling book in China'.
If we imagine a hypothetical scenario in which the Chinese government implements policies he proposed, such as 'legal regulation of the top 10% national income ratio,' 'differentiated application of real estate tax,' 'achieving an urbanization rate of over 50%,' and 'securitization of agricultural income insurance,' it will be of great help in overcoming the economic crisis.
In particular, we must not miss the key message that Song Hongbing, who holds the key to the direction of Chinese money, is sending to the global financial world.

Now, the 'currency war' is a problem for all of humanity.
This isn't just happening to the Chinese gold-buying craze or the financial powers that manipulate the stock and bond markets behind the scenes.
The currency war is closely related to the shopping carts and bank account balances of ordinary people.
At first glance, the global economy appears to be taking several steps toward stabilization, but in reality, it is the calm before the rain.
This book will empower you to master the deformed wealth distribution mechanism and avoid the catastrophe of a super global financial crisis.
The final judgment that will shatter the forced calm in the financial markets is approaching.