"Head for the Hills

Mankind endures ``an episode of great wealth destruction'' at least once a century, says Barton Biggs, of hedge fund Traxis Partners LLC, in ``Wealth, War and Wisdom'' (Wiley).

His advice: Diversify your investments and prepare for the worst. Buy yourself a farm that's off the beaten track yet easy to reach and stock it with seed, fertilizer, medicine and guns.

``Think Swiss Family Robinson,'' he says."

Review by James Pressley

Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- George Soros, Barton Biggs and Robert J. Shiller have all published books in recent months that ponder what to do when U.S. financial institutions stagger.

So as market turmoil lashed American International Group Inc., I thumbed back through these and other finance books to glean 10 easy tips for fixing the mess and weathering the storm. The recommendations range from the apocalyptic (stockpile food) to the abstract (dump the Efficient Market Hypothesis).

1. Be Bold

Americans should face the scale of the mess and take a one- time $1 trillion asset writedown, advises former banker and financial writer Charles R. Morris in his primer, ``The Trillion Dollar Meltdown'' (PublicAffairs).
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