Wealth, War and Wisdom

BARTON BIGGS spent thirty years at Morgan Stanley. In that time, he formed the firm's number one–ranked research department, was chairman of the investment management firm, and then became the firm's leading global strategist. He was often ranked as the number-one U.S. investment strategist by the Institutional Investor magazine poll and then, from 1996 to 2003, as the top global strategist. In 2003, Biggs left Morgan Stanley and, with two other colleagues, formed Traxis Partners. Traxis now has well over a billion dollars under its management. Biggs's previous book, Hedgehogging, is an international success.

• Foreword vIntroduction 1Chapter 1 Listen to the Market Crowd 7Chapter 2 A World Darkened by Fear: An Overview of Soviet, German, and Japanese Aggression from 1929–1945 19Chapter 3 Stock Markets Struggle: From the Great Depression to the Start of WWII 35Chapter 4 “1940: The Most Splendid, Most Deadly Year”: The Time of England’s Greatest Peril 55Chapter 5 Besieged and Alone: England in 1941 91Chapter 6 Operation Barbarossa: Germany Attacks Russia 109Chapter 7 Miracles at the Coral Sea and Midway: Japan and America 131Chapter 8 Stock Markets Understood: Nobody Else Did 153Chapter 9 The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Ride Again 173Chapter 10 France Declines Financially, Economically, and Socially 187Chapter 11 Gone with the Wind: Preserving Wealth in Italy and Germany 203Chapter 12 Stalingrad: The Battle of the Century 231Chapter 13 Defeats and Then Victories in Asia and North Africa 251Chapter 14 The Test in Korea: The Last Battle of WWII 275Chapter 15 Preserving Wealth in a Time of Cholera 303Chapter 16 Barbarians at the Gate 321Notes 335Bibliography 347Index 353