Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • The Road to Ruin

  • The Global Elites' Secret Plan for the Next Financial Crisis
  • By: James Rickards
  • Narrated by: James Rickards
  • Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (225 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
The Road to Ruin cover art

The Road to Ruin

By: James Rickards
Narrated by: James Rickards
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The New Great Depression cover art
The Creature from Jekyll Island cover art
Fossil Future cover art
Fooled by Randomness cover art
Guide to Investing in Gold and Silver cover art
Money Mania cover art
Expired cover art
Am I Being Too Subtle? cover art
The End of the World Is Just the Beginning cover art
Fed Up cover art
EMP: Electromagnetic Pulse: Prepping for Tomorrow Series cover art
Code Red cover art
Misunderstanding Financial Crises cover art
Colonialism cover art
Why We Want You to Be Rich cover art
Mastering Trading Psychology cover art

Summary

Penguin presents the unabridged downloadable audiobook of The Road to Ruin, written and read by James Rickards.

The best-selling author of The Death of Money on how investors can prepare for the next financial panic - and why it's coming sooner than you think.

The global economy has made what seems like an incredible comeback after the financial crisis of 2008. Yet this comeback is artificial. Central banks have propped up markets by keeping interest rates low and the supply of money free-flowing. They won't bail us out again next time. And there will be a next time...soon.

In The Road to Ruin, best-selling author James Rickards identifies how governments around the world are secretly preparing an alternative strategy for the next big crisis: a lockdown. Instead of printing money to reliquify markets and prop up assets, governments are preparing to close banks, shut down exchanges and order powerful asset managers not to sell. They're putting provisions in place that will allow them to do so legally. What's more, the global elite has already started making their own preparations, including hoarding cash and hard assets.

When the next one comes, it will be the average investor who suffers most - unless he or she heeds Rickards' warning and prepares accordingly.

James Rickards is the best-selling author of Currency Wars and The Death of Money. He is a portfolio manager at West Shore Group and an adviser on international economics and financial threats to the Department of Defence and the US intelligence community. He served as facilitator of the first-ever financial war games conducted by the Pentagon.

©2016 James Rickards (P)2016 Penguin Audio

What listeners say about The Road to Ruin

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    178
  • 4 Stars
    33
  • 3 Stars
    10
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    3
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    142
  • 4 Stars
    37
  • 3 Stars
    14
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    3
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    153
  • 4 Stars
    30
  • 3 Stars
    8
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    2

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The best Economics book of the past 5 years

This book stands on two strengths, readability and penetrating insight. Rickards utilizes his position as a capital markets insider and a quasi member of the elite to unveil both the instability of the current financial system, and the likely consequences.
The consequence he proffers is Ice-Nine, a fictional chemical dooms day device in Kurt Vonnegut's 1963 novel Cat's Cradle. This chemical reacts with water supplies to render everything solid at room temperature. Ice-Nine in Rickards words are asset freezes on a global scale as the only likely response to a further crisis, one for which the elite are I'll prepared.
If this sounds far fetched, one would do well to realize that this has already happened in recent years, in Greece and Cyprus, and has happened in similar forms in US History, such as FDR's Gold confiscations. The tools and back up for Ice-Nine is already in place, including the war on cash and the digitisation of money.
As a resident of China, I can speak of no better success story of war on cash than the near universality of WeChat Pay, and how cash is becoming increasingly shorter in supply. Rickards's notions are not far fetched if one observes carefully enough.
Rickards provides additional insight into the over leveraged nature of the financial system, and uses examples, particularly the 1998 collapse of Long Term Capital Management as a precursor to the crash of 2008, and how elites did not learn from 1998 and still haven't learned from 2008.
Rickards's book is both sobering and insightful. Much economic knowledge can be gained and built upon, however, it is an immensely entertaining and insightful work, narrated par excellence by the author himself.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Intriguing, scary, paranoid!

Any additional comments?

An interesting analysis of the history of the world financial market and the potential direction we are heading. Rickards comes across as a plausible commentator with a great deal of insight into the subject. However, the core concept of the book seems a little grandiose and paranoid to be realistic. I wholeheartedly believe much of it is possible but the end game seems unlikely.

Why would this mysterious global elite want to turn capitalism into socialism when capitalism is what made them rich in the first place?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

More like James Rickards fanciful autobiography

This book is extremely poor in terms of content - I grew very tired of all the stories along the lines of "then I had a meeting with the CEO of this bank" "then I presented to the board of xyz" "then I met so-and-so".

It's just a long biography of things the author may or may not have done though his career, name dropping at every opportunity and providing nothing in the way of real substance. Avoid.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A must read

A must read if you want to know what is going on in the world today.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

1 of the best books I've listened to in its field.

Loved this audiobook. Like all the other books he wrote, the author knows what he writes about because he has been among the elite himself. He has Insider information that average Joe's like myself could never access. I recommend this book to anyone who wants insight in the hidden world of the elites.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Clear, Illuminating and Radical Rationality

Clear description of how we got here today by using historical events and human behaviour and the thing that draws it all together complexity theory. A must read to separate yourself from the crowd.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Chilling

Great book, a great listen. Looking forward to the next installment coming from Jim Rickards

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Must read great technical knowledge

Amazing technical insight into world economics and worlds elite - recommended read - from an insider with outstanding intelligence & experience

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I knew nothing about investing I do now

I know nothing about investing or financial markets but this book teaches more than that, it's about history, modelling and physics. it's given me a good understanding of the working of markets and what to invest in and that's all I care about

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

wow

one of the best non-fiction books ever that I have listened to. very recommendable. it gives a lot of perspective on our current financial and political situation in the world.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!