Economic Warfare

New insights for investors and business people looking to create wealth in the turbulent post-crisis world

In a no holds barred expose of the 2008 financial meltdown from the inside, Ziad K. Abdelnour argues that the political and financial elites have done nothing to fix the structural problems and instead have worsened the situation. By creating more market bubbles, they are actually waging a war on the most productive members of society.

For investors, business people, and entrepreneurs that need to navigate the troubled geopolitical waters of the post-crisis world, Abdelnour offers several solutions, including looking at the world anew and understanding that the federal government's primary objective is to promote the creation of an environment conducive to the creation of wealth not job creation, not bailouts, not subsidies, not expansion of the federal bureaucracy, and not providing lifetime support to those who choose not to take advantage of the innumerable opportunities that exist in this nation for them to create a better, more productive life for themselves.

Written for investors that need to navigate the troubled geopolitical waters of the post-crisis world

· Offers "out of the box" investment tactics and strategies to outsmart the system

· Describes political and business solutions that anyone can engage in to restore freedom and prosperity

The author is President and CEO of Blackhawk Partners, Inc., a private family office that has two major lines of business, private equity investments and advisory services, and physical commodities trading

Compelling and persuasive, Economic Warfare reveals that wealth can be created in the new, post-crisis world, but investors need to understand that the rules of the game have changed.

Foreword by Marc Rowan xiii

Foreword by Herman Cain xvii

Prologue xxiii

Preface xxv

Acknowledgments xxix

Introduction xxxiii

Prelude xxxix

Chapter 1 The War against the Rich 1

Just Who Am I? 3

The Richest Man I Know 4

Why You Are Not Rich 6

Who Are the Rich and Why Should You Care about Them? 9

The Millionaire down the Street 11

The Socialist Fallacy 14

Can We Separate Economics and Politics? 16

Notes 18

Chapter 2 Report from the Battlefield 19

An Inside Job 21

Running the Red Lights 24

The Joker of Gotham City 25

A Crisis of Consciousness 30

Notes 32

Chapter 3 The Seeds of Our Destruction 35

“. . . In Order to Form a More Perfect Union . . .” 37

The Man Who Would Be King 38

The Hamilton Legacy 44

Bringing Hamilton’s Monster to Life 47

Springtime for the Progressives 48

And What about the Fed? 52

Notes 53

Chapter 4 The Face of the Enemy 55

Who Are the Progressives 58

Hubris by Any Other Name 61

The Bankers 65

Politics as Usual 68

Outside Influences 72

Notes 75

Chapter 5 Warfare, Not Terrorism 77

The Return of Civil Disobedience 84

Is Free-Market Capitalism Dead? 92

Notes 95

Chapter 6 Battle Plans 97

What Should America’s Global Role Be? 99

My General Philosophy for Creating “Wealth” 100

The Specifics of the Wealth Creation Process 102

Risks, Rewards, and Opportunities 107

Basic Tenets of My Investment and Wealth Creation Philosophy 109

The Future of Commodities 111

How to Best Protect Your Assets in the Turbulent Times Ahead 113

Invest in Yourself 116

Note 117

Chapter 7 Strategic Goals 119

About the Private Equity Business Today 120

The Five Myths of Private Equity 124

My Personal View on the Biggest Challenges in the Private Equity Industry Today 127

Which Industries Are Particularly Interesting for “Distressed Investing”? 129

What Sectors of the Private Equity Markets Are We Focusing on Today? 130

Private Equity Deal Killers 133

How Do You Turn Billion-Dollar Ideas into Billion-Dollar Businesses? 138

Chapter 8 Tactical Maneuvers 141

Real Estate 142

Alternative Investment Vehicles 144

What Part Did Hedge Funds Play in the Crash of 2008? 148

Bottom Line on Hedge Funds 150

Private Equity Roll-ups 152

Skin in the Game 157

Notes 160

Chapter 9 Global Fronts 161

Targets of Opportunity 164

Rules of Engagement 165

Brazil 168

Russia 170

India 172

China 174

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) 175

Notes 178

Chapter 10 The Tenth Amendment 181

If It’s Broke, Fix It! 183

How Is It Working for You? 184

Repeal Bad Legislation 185

Cutting Overhead 186

Toward an Equitable Tax System 193

End the Fed 195

Regime Change 197

Notes 199

Conclusion 201

About the Author 205

Index 207

ZIAD K. ABDELNOUR is President and CEO of Blackhawk Partners, Inc., a private equity family office that focuses on originating, structuring, and acting as an equity investor in management-led buyouts, strategic minority equity investments, equity private placements, consolidations, buildups, and growth capital financings. Since 1985, Mr. Abdelnour has been involved in over 125 transactions, worth in aggregate over ten billion dollars, in the investment banking, high-yield bond, and distressed debt markets and has been widely recognized for playing an integral role in those three key market sectors. Mr. Abdelnour also serves on the board of TMax Capital, on the advisory board of DPG Investments, and FlatWorld Capital. Abdelnour holds an MBA in finance from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in economics, summa cum laude, from the American University of Beirut and is a speaker on private equity and venture capital topics at industry conferences nationwide.

WESLEY A. WHITTAKER has been writing professionally for thirty-five years, producing business proposals, white papers, and research reports. He was in the 1977 National Collegiate Poets Anthology and wrote a satirical column for a monthly magazine in Atlanta in the mid-1980s. On the creative side, Whittaker has written two plays, two screenplays, and is completing work on his first novel. This is his first nonfiction book.

America was created to be a land of opportunity, where the individual could take an idea, develop it, and create wealth in the process. Unfortunately, not everyone agrees with this notion. An enemy has arisen in our midst, one who has single-mindedly worked to subvert and even destroy this opportunity.

Surprisingly, it is those we have elected and entrusted with managing our federal government and its burgeoning bureaucracies who are running the country into the ground. Operating under the arrogant delusion that theory is wiser than experience, they have given us an endless stream of programs. Instead of correcting our social ills, these programs have only exacerbated the problems and actually created more challenges due to the unintended consequences of incompetence, mismanagement, and corruption.

Author Ziad Abdelnour, a financial veteran who’s made a career of empowering entrepreneurs and creating opportunities, has been on the front line of battle in this economic war—a war between those who create wealth and those who believe they have some sort of divine mandate to appropriate it. Now, in Economic Warfare, Abdelnour lays out a plan for restoring economic freedom in the United States and around the world. Along the way, he reveals the true nature of the enemy that threatens to destroy the free market capitalist system that has made this nation great. He also shows where the weakening of our system began, how it was accomplished, and by whom. But unlike many books out there, Economic Warfare actually provides some strong and serious solutions for overcoming the forces against wealth creation, and lays out a strategy for not only surviving in today’s turbulent financial environment, but regaining the economic freedom that has marked American exceptionalism. For nearly one hundred years, we have allowed our public servants to operate based upon the theory that bigger government is better government, no matter the cost. That theory has nearly destroyed us.

Page by page, Economic Warfare :

• Strips away the veneer to reveal the true agenda behind our expanding central government
• Describes the damage that has been inflicted upon the American economy in the last few years, making the case for the indisputable charge that we are involved in an economic war for survival
• Details Abdelnour’s personal strategies and vehicles for wealth creation, and outlines tools that can be used on a global scale
• Gives a rundown of areas in which we, the people, can and must demand accountability and fundamental change from the next administration that moves into the White House
• And much more

Armed with the insights found here, you’ll discover why engaging in the wealth creation process, instead of relying on big government and big business, is the best path to prosperity.