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Red Alert - How China's Growing Prosperity Threatens the American Way of Life

By Stephen Leeb with Gregory Dorsey

Published by Hachette Book Group

Price: R250 (hardback)

AVAILABLE NOW AT EXCLUS1VES.CO.ZA

This book is written less like a business book and more like a stern warning. Coming from Stephen Leeb, investors are likely to take heed. President of Leeb Capital Management, Leeb has authored several books including The Oil Factor published in 2005 and The Coming Economic Collapse, which was released in 2007.

In Red Alert he compels - even begs - the world and the US in particular to wake up to China's strategy to gain a monopoly on commodities. He says that the US remains on a path that virtually ensures, if not another full-scale financial debacle, at least a protracted decline in the American 'dream' as we know it. What is scary is that he believes that the US is so far down this path that it will take a "warlike effort" to change routes to one that offers a more vibrant economic future.

With almost page brimming with statistics, Leeb demonstrates how rising commodity prices were essentially behind the recent recession and how rising commodity prices can be laid solely at China's feet.

Ironically, he pins the start of China's commodity stockpiling to around September 2001. Following the terrorist attacks the US has been focused on "fighting the wrong battles, in the wrong places". Essentially, he suggests that China poses a challenge in terms of an economic war and he adds, that is a war the US is unlikely to win simply because it is unaware that it needs to fight.

It's a 'war' that not only the US has to fight; it has implications for all economies. Guised as a move towards green energy most have not seen it coming. Over the next ten years China's average annual spending on renewable energy will exceed $350 billion, or about three times what the entire world spent on renewables in 2008.

Leeb suggests that in the competitive race for scarce resources, for China to reach its goal would mean that critical commodities would have to become so scarce that the rest of the world would never be able to keep up.

A provocative and eye-opening read that is likely to make you rethink what you know about the emerging superpower.

Win a copy of Red Alert with BusinessLIVE and Exclusive Books. To enter, please answer the following question:

In what year was Leeb's book, The Oil Factor published?

SMS 'BusinessLive' and the answer to 33756. The contest closes at 10am on Wednesday, October 12. Text messages are charged at R1.50 per entry. Free messages do not apply. Readers can enter as many times as they wish.