Quote: (07-13-2015 06:06 AM)dreambig Wrote:
Quote: (07-13-2015 05:57 AM)SunW Wrote:
The great news is that it gives those of us who want to be in an excellent position more time to prepare.
Prepare how? How can we benefit from this coming black swan?
The only people who are hurt when a currency hyperinflates - as the Greek currency was about to do, and as the US dollar eventually will do because nobody has enough funds to bail out the US - are those who are left holding that currency, or assets denominated in that currency, when the shit hits the fan.
Those who are holding assets whose value is not denominated in the hyperinflated currency do not lose money in real terms. This is why everyone who hasn't read deeply enough on the history of hyperinflation and capital controls keeps advising to buy gold: because it's historically a storer of value that people want.
Those who
have read deeply on the subject understand that
for that very reason, gold is the primary target of governments who want to stop people from getting out of their hyperinflated currency. You don't even need to leave US soil to get an example of this: consider Executive Order 6102, courtesy of FDR, which forced every American to turn over any gold he had to the US government when the Depression hit. Americans could not own gold again until the 1970s.
Half the problem is that when hyperinflation hits, everyone hits the exits at once trying to get rid of the shit currency they hold. This is also why tourists make out like bandits in hyperinflated countries - because they're holding a currency that actually means something. It's also why, sure as eggs, hoarders, preppers and those holding stockpiles of small consumer goods are regularly shamed by governments when a currency crisis arises - again, because barter is a way to get around the government's shit currency.
It's not inconceivable that, when the US dollar does eventually hyperinflate, the Mormons as a group are likely to do very well out of it - because it's almost a religious commandment among them that they have a solid supply of long term consumer goods, enough to last a good year. In hyperinflationary conditions, this becomes sheer wealth because they don't have to trade on the government's worthless dollars - and hyperinflation historically only lasts between 18 months and 3 years; it is not sustainable because eventually everyone shifts to the black market, barter, or to currencies which hold some value. Barter markets have kept people from starving in currency crises in tinpot South American currencies like that of Argentina (with currently a 20% inflation rate, thanks to its insanely generous pension and free education programs). Zimbabwe, for example, tried hyperinflation, forbidding people to own or hold US dollars, but they simply could not keep up the charade and eventually bowed to people trading in US dollars openly.
How you learn from it is this: the US dollar eventually will hyperinflate. Not tomorrow, maybe not in the next five years, but eventually it must. When it happens it will make the Depression and subprime look like little upticks in the market by comparison. The way you learn from it is to file quietly and calmly to the exits before other people smell the smoke and shout "Fire!" By then it will be too late. Do not attempt to change the system: the economic history of the US more or less proves all you
can do is try and be an economic guerrilla and avoid being stomped on by the two major parties who are incompetent, intentionally malevolent towards you, or both. As with any other field of life:
take responsibility for your own affairs.
Remissas, discite, vivet.
God save us from people who mean well. -storm