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Prepper Ping - Uh OH !! BOHICA - Economy and the Topsy-Turvey National Debt
Just when you think that the world that you knew, proves to be updisde-down !

(from the article):" Negative rates are the destruction of money, an economic aberration based on the mistakes of many central banks and some of their economists who start from a wrong diagnosis:
the idea that economic agents do not take more credit or invest more because they choose to save too much and therefore saving must be penalized to stimulate the economy.
Excuse the bluntness, but it is a ludicrous idea."

"Inflation and growth are not low due to excess savings, but because of excess debt, perpetuating overcapacity with low rates
and high liquidity and zombifying the economy by subsidizing the low productivity and highly indebted sectors and penalizing high productivity with rising and confiscatory taxation."

"Historical evidence of negative rates shows that they do not help reduce debt, they incentivize it, they do not strengthen the credit capacity of families,
because the prices of non-replicable assets (real estate, etc.) skyrocket because of monetary excess,
and the lower cost of debt does not compensate for the greater risk."

ANSWER: " Protect your savings with gold, silver, inflation-linked instruments
and stocks in sectors that do not suffer from negative rates."

Comments Welcomed !

The EU - people who had savings, were given a “haircut”. Double digit hits to their accounts. spit. Legalized theft as far as I am concerned.

The actions of the Federal Reserve Bank/Government Policy during my lifetime has reduced the value of the dollar by about 98% and it's about to plunge some more.

If you have credit card debt, paying that off is kinda like earning whatever rate they are charging you.

Stocking up on food that you eat routinely is also good, because when the gasoline prices go up so does food. If the food is good for 18 months, buy enough for 18 months etc.

However, note that most canned foods are considered edible past their use by date — they just might suffer from taste or nutritional degradation.

During the last big inflation, real estate taxes rose so fast that people had trouble paying them. So some gold or silver might be a good hedge against that. However, like stocks, precious metals fluctuate-so buying low is preferred.

Land also is a great investment-but again there's cycles to deal with as well as taxes.

I am thinking that a big pot of money is wrapped up in 401ks. So stay alert to what CongressCritters are doing on taxes etc. Congress will likely be looking at that money and thinking about ways to take it for "your own good".

I like to buy stocks when they are undervalued, and sell half when the value has doubled. That returns my principle and allows me to have money to invest for another under valued stock.

In Dec. 2007, I was looking for some good stocks to buy, when I realized that there were none fitting my criteria and the stocks were really basically overvalued. So I sold off a bunch of stuff — just taking a few chips off the table.

When the 2008 crisis hit and everyone was selling right and left, I was buying — stuff like Ford @ $3/share. Buy 200 shares for example and hold until you get it to $6 per share, and then sell 100 shares-maybe or maybe wait-depends on the outlook.

When investing, it's an individual preference. If you can't sleep at night due to market fluctuations - you need to rethink your strategy.

I'm reading many negatives on precious metals. The dollar is finished. The COMEX has disconnected from paper value to actual retail bullion demand. Happens every time a fiat currency begins to collapse.

JPMorgan just paid 920 million in fines with criminal indictments (8) for 100,000s of manipulations. Of course there was just a slap on the hand and our government decided it was in the best interests of everyone (there bank accounts) not to enforce the criminal indictments.

Hard assets and no debt are the first items to prepare with. Silver and gold will be the units of exchange like they always have been when paper money collapses. The value of precious metals have been manipulated by just two banks during the last 20 years. JPMorgan was the primary mover.

I have repeatedly posted about a silver proxy everyone can follow and yet it falls on deaf ears. Silver war nickels. I was recently surprised to see the value increase 50% in two months. The value of them have now exceeded many baskets of goods including gasoline we use to measure inflation. They are telling us we are in a deflationary death spiral. In two months we went from 3 war nickels to less than 2 for a gallon of gasoline as an example.

Consistent reports from Venezuela show that precious metals and particularly silver for everyday purchase have protected those with the foresight to transfer from the Bolivar before the collapse. Barter will work, however it is very cumbersome. Barter does not reflect the unit of labor that precious metals retain. For example if I buy a new generator for my house, silver and gold will expedite the delivery. Thousands of bullets, outdated cans of food, old clothes, fire wood, labor and other barterable items will not do that.

I am still out on crypto currency. I see the value however as a global asset (ethereum) and not ready for local exchange. Our perceptions on the dollar as a world currency are based on a post WW2 Brentton Woods agreement. Since Nixon decoupled gold from the dollar we have been in a death spiral. Only our military has been able to enforce it. That is coming to an end. Our normalcy bias is the belief the dollar will not collapse.

We need to ask ourselves why world players have been buying gold and silver. China and India have been major purchasers. What is the value of that paper we call the dollar worth? What is the value when our central banks can just type in a trillion here and a trillion there? This was never a loan. This was never meant to be paid back. This was a constant dilution of our savings and a socialist wealth transfer.