Robert Shiller: Dr. Shiller called the stock bubble peak in early 2000 better than anyone and more conclusively than we did at first. His book, Irrational Exuberance, is one of the best books written on the topic of speculative bubbles, with special reference to the stock market and real estate. His thorough analysis of the housing bubble uses long-term trends in housing and construction costs adjusted for size and quality back to 1890. His more recent book The New Financial Order: Risk in the 21st Century is an analysis of an expanding role of finance, insurance, and public finance in our future. Dr. Shiller does not incorporate demographic and technology cycles into his analysis. To learn more about Dr. Shiller’s research, refer to his website at Yale University: http://www.econ.yale.edu/~shiller/

Robert Prechter: Mr. Prechter is a major innovator and has been instrumental in reviving and refining Elliott Wave theory for short-term technical analysis and longer-term cycles as well. His insight on long-term cycles is stellar, but he missed the incredible 1990s bull market and largely missed the 2003-2007 bull market as well. We agree with him that we are currently in a major, secular bear market that will prove to be greater than anyone else expects. For more information on Mr. Prechter and Elliot Wave theory, see the Elliot Wave International site: http://www.elliottwave.com/info/prechter_bio.htm

Ned Davis:Mr. Davis has been the greatest tracker of recurring cycles, including the most critical Decennial Cycle that has back tested by our analysis to be the greatest single risk/return strategy over the last century. His cycle analysis from annual to 4-year to Decennial is the best in the field, and he has managed to combine them all into one excellent model. For a closer look at Mr. Davis’s research, refer to his site: http://www.ndr.com

Jared Diamond: Dr. Diamond is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the Phi Beta Kappa award for his groundbreaking study of the development of human societies. His book Guns, Germs and Steel offers incredible insight and represents the best summary view of the last 10,000 years of human history, particularly the “Big Bang” of the Agriculture Revolution, which created the dominant cultures of today. His work is a must read for an understanding of the great revolutions that have shaped the development of modern society. Dr. Diamond is a professor of geography at UCLA: www.geog.ucla.edu

Thomas Friedman: Mr. Friedman has established himself as the expert on trends in globalization. His recent best-selling book, The World is Flat, adds valuable insight to his prior work, The Lexus and the Olive Tree. Both books should be read by anyone interested in understanding the profound changes that are revolutionizing world trade - including the IT technology boom, the worldwide embrace of free market capitalism, and the rise of China and India as economic powers – and the risks that could derail the revolution, such as terrorism, protectionism, and nationalism. www.thomaslfriedman.com

Philip Longman: Phillip Longman is a senior fellow at the New America Foundation and the author of numerous articles and books on demographics and public policy. His book, The Empty Cradle, is a sobering analysis of demographic trends for the developed world, arguing that reduced fertility and global aging will threaten world prosperity, jeopardize national economies, and will fundamentally change our economy, culture, and way of life for decades to come. Mr. Longman’s bio can be viewed at the New America Foundation website: www.newamerica.net

Benoit Mandelbrot: Benoit Mandelbrot is one of the few truly original minds in the study of finance. After developing his reputation as a brilliant mathematician and the founder of fractal geometry, Mandelbrot applied his insights to the financial markets in The (mis)Behavior of Markets. Mandelbrot explodes many of the myths that modern finance is built on, namely that returns are normally distributed and that volatility is constant over time. Markets do not follow a “random walk’ but follow what Mandelbrot calls “market time.” Perhaps most importantly, Mandelbrot correctly points out that volatility tends to come in short, violent clusters. Mandelbrot’s work should be read by anyone involved in trading or portfolio management.

Michael Mauboussin: Michael Mauboussin is the chief investment strategist at Legg Mason Capital Management and is the author on an excellent investing guide, More Than You Know. This is not a “how to” book, but it is certainly a “how to think” book. Mauboussin tackles several behavioral topics and points out many of the flaws that erode investor performance over time, largely revolving around the broad misconception that stock market returns have a normal distribution. He shows that the risks of extreme up and downside moves are higher than we assume and that they cluster together – which reinforces our model of “the seasons of our economy”. Mauboussin takes numerous complex topics and weaves them into a very readable investing primer that should be required reading for all investors. This book touches on some of the same themes as the recent best-seller, The Black Swan, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, which is also very much worth reading, as is Taleb’s first book Fooled By Randomness.

Gregory Clark: Rarely does an economist or historian come along that changes our view of history, as we have studied it so conclusively for decades. But A Farewell to Alms brings important new insights into economic history and progress. Clark shows how “the Malthusian Trap” ruled all of human history up to the Industrial Revolution. Land was the limiting factor and the very slow technological innovations that did occur only allowed greater population, not significantly higher standards of living. Rising population would limit the resources per person and bring living standards back down. Plagues were the best instigator of rising real wages. The rich may have gotten richer with new innovations, but the average person stayed at a largely subsistence level of living and diet for thousands of years – and not really better (if as good) than the hunting and gathering or caveman era before the Agricultural Revolution. He argues that it was a unique culture that evolved in England and northwestern Europe that allowed the Industrial Revolution to flower and to foster population growth and consistently rising standards of living that spread even faster to everyday people than to the rich by reducing the power of land. We think he understates the advances over history by focusing solely on diet, but this is a breakthrough book in economics. It causes us to wonder how fast most third world cultures can catch up with the slowing, affluent Western cultures.

William Strauss and Neil Howe: These authors created a breakthrough book in 1991 called Generations. They have documented generation cycles back to the late 1500s in European and American history around a four stage model that correlates with our Generation Wave and 80-Year New Economy Cycle. They went through painstaking academic research to document the social, political and economic impacts of generations before birth and modern statistics made such generational trends more obvious starting in 1911 in the US. We are in great debt to their research which shows that generation cycles have impacted trends including major crises and challenges for more than just the last century. They continued to elaborate their research in The Fourth Turning (1996) and Millenials Rising (1999). They foresaw the challenge to American power coming in the early 2000s and they see a difficult period into the next decade as we do.

David Bach: Bach is a successful financial advisor who distilled his wisdom of investment and financial planning into perhaps the simplest and most summary advice ever. He has authored several mega bestsellers starting with Smart Women Finish Rich and including our favorite The Automatic Millionaire. His most important advice in our view revolves around a very key new concept that he pioneered: “Pay yourself first” or make your investment savings as automatic as your rent or car payments. His latest book, Go Green, Live Rich, revolves around how you can become environmentally friendly with very simple everyday actions. Bach offers effective coaching services to help people do what they know they need to do. www.finishrich.com