Differing with the gloom boom

Pop into any bookstore these days and you are likely to come across a bin of financial books. As one publishing executive points out in today's Monitor book section, "when times get tough people want to know what to do to make their money go farther."

While appreciative of the general public's infatuation with finance there is one aspect that concerns us. That is the hawking of "gloom and doom" economic books -- the type that prophesy imminent financial and political ruin. Some of these books often advise readers to stockpile the house with canned goods and loaded weapons (to protect that basement full of gold coins) while awaiting the ultimate "catastrophe." We also notice that they tend to be written by persons with limited corporate backgrounds.

Past decades, such as the early 1930s, have seen their own financial-oriented "gloom" books. Yet, time -- and a rise in production -- have invariably proven them wrong. Pardon our optimism if we suspect the same will occur with our present doomsayers .