The scary thing is that there are no safe havens for investment.
Gold is good, but frankly, most people are struggling to just keep up and don’t have 1600+ to fork over on an ounce. Everyone and his brother is expecting a WTH dollar rally as the “safe haven” play against the Euro, but I don’t think that will materialize with the ridiculous shenanigans that pass for “debt” negotiations.
If anything, the interest rates should rise but that won’t happen either. Nothing is working at this point.
A VAT would go a long way toward ending the disadvantage the US is up against in global trade. The corporations would, at last, have to add in that advantage of cheap (slave) labor and no regulatory hinderances that keep things out-of -whack tradewise.
I’m going for the cheap priced, dividend yielding consumer stocks that I’ve usually avoided.
The whole atmosphere just stinks as far as investment.
There are other investment/safe possibilities for less affluent people. I have many nickels too.
A VAT only works to boost manufacturing jobs if we use that to replace the FICA tax. A national sales tax can work as well.