Agora Financial is proud to announce the arrival of Jeffrey Tucker as Publisher and Executive Editor of Laissez Faire Books.

Jeffrey is a speaker, writer, organizer, and technology/cultural pundit of international renown. His long history of pioneering work with key individuals and institutions, and 16 years of experience developing Mises.org’s fight for free market principles and libertarian ideals, make him a great addition to the legacy of Laissez Faire Books and the perfect choice to usher in a new epoch of book publishing in the digital age.

We are thrilled to have Jeff leading Laissez Faire Books to the next grand phase of our proud history.

A Brief History of Laissez Faire Books

In the 1970s most bookstores rarely carried no more than a couple of dozen titles with libertarian themes and either relegated the books to a single shelf or scattered them throughout the store in various categories.

On Saturday, March 4, 1972, John Muller and Sharon Presley opened a small bookshop in a storefront on Mercer Street in Greenwich Village. While the New York Times did not cover the opening of Laissez Faire Books (LFB), in attendance were some of the leading libertarian luminaries of the day. People like Murray Rothbard, Roy Childs and Jerome Tuccille.

From the beginning the goal of Laissez Faire Books was to create a one-stop place to shop for everything libertarian. That included books ranging from Menger’s Principles of Economics to Mencken’s Treatise on the Gods to Steve Ditko’s underground “Mr. A” comics whose hero reflected the influence of Ayn Rand’s objectivist philosophy.

In those early years, LFB quickly morphed into something more than a bookstore. It became a marketplace of ideas for libertarians who had no other venues to discuss social and political issues of the day. With lectures, films, and book signings it became the 20th century version of the ancient Greek agora.In the 80s, to grow its business and to honor the 18th century liberals Charles James Fox and John Wilkes,LFB created the Fox & Wilkes imprint and became a publisher. The objective was to publish contemporary authors and reissue classic libertarian books that were out-of-print.

Through the early 90s, the used book market was fragmented into over ten thousand bookshops. To keep growing, LFB aggressively invested in mail-order marketing. Quickly, the customer list grew to nearly 30,000 active names who received catalogues and other mailings.

With the advent of the Internet, the bookselling landscape changed dramatically. Pricing pressures and changing customer demographics made profitability difficult for niche players like LFB and over the next decade, ownership and location changed several times.

Late in 2010 Agora Financial, one of the nation’s premier publishers of investment advisory newsletters acquired the assets, inventory, and name and took ownership of Laissez Faire Books.

AGORA FINANCIAL & LAISSEZ FAIRE BOOKS IS PROUD TO INTRODUCE:

The first comprehensive, digital-age society of big ideas… The Laissez Faire Club!

 A charter membership to the Laissez Faire Club:

• provides you with free, high-quality e-books that we publish every week. You can access them from your laptop, e-reader, smartphone or desktop. Read just 1/10th of these books and you’ll be the smartest person on your block
• grants access to videos and podcasts that allow you to read and absorb the ideas in those books more quickly, saving you hundreds of hours of reading time
• connects you with fellow members in business, finance and the world of ideas. This allows you to leverage hundreds of years of experience as you learn, discuss, socialize and share and pass ideas back and forth
• saves a boatload of money on every printed book in the Laissez Faire catalog, with a clean 20% discount on all 1,000 titles.

Read and digest the timeless theory in your free Economics in One Library box set. Download all your new e-books and video analyses… participate in the private idea-sharing forums… it’s all yours.

Simply click here to claim your charter membership to the Laissez Faire Club.

Recent Books from Agora Financial Editors & Columnists:

The Little Book of the Shrinking Dollar

Wiggin, Addison

Every paper currency in the history of civilization has eventually lost its entire value. It’s a simple matter of supply and demand. Today’s U.S. dollar supply is way out of whack. And its value is going down—fast!

Back in 1970, if you just stashed a dollar coin under the mattress, you’d find it buys you less than two dimes worth of goods today. The Little Book of the Shrinking Dollar explores the top 10 reasons why the dollar is losing value and offers plenty of solutions for how to protect your wealth and prosper during the crisis that lies ahead.

Written by New York Times bestselling author Addison Wiggin, a leading economic forecaster, the book explores the reasons for the dollar’s decline, and its precarious relationship to other currencies around the world. Filled with invaluable strategies for retirees, savers, and investors who want to keep their money safe no matter what lies ahead, the book is your one-stop guide to weathering the storm.

ORDER NOW from Laissez Faire Books

Hardcover| Publisher: Wiley; (April 23, 2012)
Language: English | ISBN-13: 987-1118245255

World Right Side Up: Investing Across Six Continents

Mayer, Christopher

From Brazilian farmlands to Colombian gold fields, from Chinese shopping malls to Indian hotels, from South African wine country to the boom/bust souks of Dubai, this around-the-world investing field trip explores the nooks and crannies for hidden investment opportunities. World Right Side Up: Investing Across Six Continents is packed with ideas to power your portfolio in the years ahead while teaching you a little fascinating history along the way. Fact is, the world’s markets have changed in a big way. For the first time since before the Industrial Revolution, the emerging markets now contribute as much to the global economy as their more well-developed peers. Far from being an anomaly, this state of affairs is more in line with the bulk of human experience. For centuries, China and India were the world’s largest economies. And so the world is turning…right side up.

ORDER NOW from Laissez Faire Books

Hardcover| Publisher: Wiley; (April 5, 2012)
Language: English | ISBN-13: 978-1-1181-7140-0

Dice Have No Memory: Big Bets and Bad Economics from Paris to the Pampas

Bonner, William

Dice Have No Memory: Big Best and Bad Economics from Paris to the Pampas is look back at the modern financial markets through the eyes of author Bill Bonner.

For over 30 years Bill Bonner has taken an honest look at the challenges facing the U.S. economy. The driving force behind The Daily Reckoning, a global e-letter with a following of 550,000 readers, Bill’s provocative commentary is written with clarity and conviction. Dice Have No Memory is a collection of his best writings, along with new material that gives context to his columns. Chapters also offer insight into what changes have occurred since their original publication.

Providing both intriguing opinions and evergreen advice, Dice Have No Memory is a rousing look at Bill Bonner’s literary economic perspective, global market analysis, and contrarian investment ideas.

ORDER  NOW from Laissez Faire Books

Hardcover: 352 pages | Publisher: Wiley; (April 5, 2011)
Language: English | ISBN-10: 0470640049 | ISBN-13: 978-0470640043

Financial Reckoning Day Fallout

Bonner, William | Wiggin, Addison

In Financial Reckoning Day — an international bestseller published early in this decade —maverick financial writers Addison Wiggin and William Bonner made some bold predictions about the economic difficulties the United States was about to encounter. Unfortunately, much of what they warned about has come true.

Now, in Financial Reckoning Day Fallout, Wiggin and Bonner return to reveal exactly how these events have unfolded—high unemployment rates, record setting foreclosures and bankruptcies, as well as the near global collapse of the financial institutions once thought to be so secure—and what you can do to protect yourself from today’s growing global depression.

Filled with in-depth insights and practical advice, Financial Reckoning Day Fallout warns that depressions are not necessarily a thing of the past. That’s why it’s essential to have a wide-angle resource like this on hand to get you through the current crunch—and help you prosper in the uncertain economic times ahead.

ORDER NOW from Laissez Fair Books

Hardcover: 448 pages | Publisher: Wiley; 2 edition (August 3, 2009)
Language: English | ISBN-10: 047048327X | ISBN-13: 978-0470483275

New Empire of Debt

Bonner, William  |  Wiggin, Addison

In The New Empire of Debt, the internationally acclaimed author team of William Bonner and Addison Wiggin return to reveal how the epic financial bubble that is plaguing the United States will soon bring an end to this once-great empire. Throughout the book, they offer a frightening look at the United States’ precarious position and discuss how government control of the economy and financial system— combined with unfettered deficit spending and gluttonous consumption—has ravaged the business environment, devastated consumer confidence, and pushed the global economy to the brink.

Along the way, Bonner and Wiggin warn of the dangers that lie ahead and offer practical advice to protect your financial well being as the American empire collapses upon itself. You’ll discover that you don’t have to tie your own fate to the inevitable destruction of America’s system of imperial finance. Instead, you can take some simple steps to weather the crisis. Bonner and Wiggin have been studying the financial landscape for more than twenty years. With The New Empire of Debt, they not only show you how we got into this mess, but how to get yourself out of it.

ORDER NOW from Laissez Faire Books

Hardcover: 400 pages | Publisher: Wiley; 2 edition (August 3, 2009)
Language: English | ISBN-10: 0470483261 | ISBN-13: 978-0470483268

I.O.U.S.A

Wiggin, Addison | Incontrera, Kate

New York Times best-selling author and executive producer of the widely acclaimed documentary film I.O.U.S.A. brings you the amazon.com # 1 best seller…
I.O.U.S.A. explores the many facets of the U.S. economy. The executive producer and co-writers of the debt documentary film, I.O.U.S.A., which was dubbed by Reuters as the “inconvenient truth” for the economy, give you an enlightening look at the state of the union. The timing of the release of this book couldn’t be more pertinent.

I.O.U.S.A., the companion book to the movie, picks up where Addison Wiggin and Bill Bonner’s New York Times best-selling Empire of Debt left off. It features stories about the people involved in making decisions about the four major deficits in the country (federal deficit, trade deficit, savings deficit, and leadership deficit). Complete transcripts of interviews conducted with Warren Buffet, Alan Greenspan, Paul Volcker, Robert Rubin, Alice Rivlin, Pete Peterson, David Walker, Paul O’Neill, James Areddy, Arthur Laffer, Steve Forbes and Bill Bonner will accompany the book

I.O.U.S.A. serves as a wake up call to Americans. Now, more than ever, you need to know the inside story and what the leading financial minds recommend you do to preserve financial stability.

ORDER NOW FROM:
Amazon.com | Borders

Paperback: 288 pages | Publisher: Wiley (September 29, 2008)
Language: English | ISBN-10: 0470222778 | ISBN-13: 978-0470222775

I.O.U.S.A. on iTunes: Addison Wiggin and Kate Incontrera’s #1 selling book, I.O.U.S.A., is now on iTunes. If you have iTunes loaded on your computer simply go to the iTunes store and search I.O.U.S.A. to download.

The Demise of the Dollar…And Why It’s Even Better for Your Investments

Wiggin, Addison

With this fully revised and updated edition of The Demise of the Dollar, Addison Wiggin returns to reveal the many ways you can capitalize on the teetering U.S. dollar.

Picking up where the bestselling original edition left off, this engaging and entertaining book examines the many reasons behind the dollar’s expected decline—including its structural flaws, the growing trade deficit, and the euro—and discusses the proper approaches to profiting from such a dynamic event. Along the way, you’ll also discover how the dollar’s inevitable slide will affect both world economies and your personal portfolio. The impact of the falling dollar is going to be significant as well as far reaching. Filled with in-depth insights, wry wit and sound advice, The Demise of the Dollar… And Why It’s Even Better for Your Investments will put this situation in perspective and provide you with the information needed to financially survive and thrive during the years ahead.

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Paperback: 197 pages  Publisher: Wiley; Rev Upd edition (April 4, 2008) 
Language: English ISBN-10: 0470287241 ISBN-13: 978-0470287

Invest Like A Dealmaker: Secrets of A Former Banking Insider

Mayer, Chris

Invest Like a Dealmaker outlines an approach to investing that is far removed from what most investors have been conditioned to believe, but which has produced consistent profits for its practitioners decade after decade. While the concepts covered are not well known by the average investor, they are well appreciated by Wall Street insiders and dealmakers—particularly those who think about stocks as whole companies, as things with real assets, and cash flows that exist in the real world.

ORDER NOW FROM:

Amazon.com | Borders

Publisher: Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated | Pub. Date: January 2008
ISBN-13: 9780470180914 | 222pp

Mobs, Messiahs & Markets:
Surviving the Public Spectacle In Finance & Politics

William, Bonner

Collectively, people think and act in ways that are different from how they think and act as individuals. Understanding these differences, says William (Bill) Bonner—a longtime maverick observer of the financial world and the vagaries of the investing public—is vital to preserving your wealth and personal dignity. From the witch hunts of the early modern world to the war on terror, from the dot-com mania to the real estate bubble, people have always been caught up in frauds, conceits, and wild guesses—often with devastating results. In Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets, Bonner and coauthor Lila Rajiva show groupthink at work in an improbable array of instances throughout history and reveal why swimming against the current pays. They explain why people so often abandon good sense and good behavior to “follow the crowd” and show you how to avoid getting caught up in the public spectacles around you.

If an investor merely recognizes the way mob sentiment works, the authors point out, he is far ahead of most others. Ordinary people, for example, turn over billions of dollars’ worth of their hard-earned money to brokers and mutual fund managers every day—immediate, tangible, personal money—believing that strangers will give them back even more. Whatever would make them think so?

Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets demonstrates that investors are in fact caught between a rock and a soft place—between the private world they can understand and master and the misleading public spectacle of the markets. “The further away you get from your investments, and the less you suffer the consequences if they go bad, the worse your performance will be,” say Bonner andRajiva. “That’s why ‘collective’ investments like index-linked funds,mutual funds, hedge funds, insurance funds, and pension funds are usually so bad. The investors are too far from the facts—and the managers are too far from the consequences.”

The authors’ cautionary tale of the current bubble economy warns that the gush of credit let loose by Alan Greenspan is fraught with perils for the unwary—but their thoughtful and always entertaining approach also offers some sound investing principles for avoiding the pitfalls of the public spectacle, thinking for yourself, and protecting your money, your sanity, and your soul.

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Publisher: Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated | Pub. Date: August 2007
ISBN-13: 9780470112328 | 424pp