| | | I believe we are nearing the end of American democracy as we know it. It cannot function when people no longer talk to each other. That has been eroding for 20+ years and on life support for the last decade. The successor to democracy is autocracy. Those in power take care of their buddies, but nobody really cares about ordinary people. Look at life in Russia, in Turkey, and you get a sense of where I think we are headed.
Paradoxically, while people often wish for strong leaders, it is the weak (or at least restrained) leaders under which we prosper. The government is a lot better at creating problems than at solving them. When it tries to solve one problem, it ends up creating a different larger problem. E.g. the COVID stimulus leading to rampant inflation and runaway debt. Autocracies are not good for business - though of course nobody actively tries to kill the golden goose of innovation and a healthy economy.
I'm doubtful that investing in gold, silver, bitcoin, or other dead assets is a meaningful answer. Our need for currency and store of value grows (and shrinks) with the economy. If the economy shrinks significantly, then nothing is going to buy you much. Rather, I would own the economy, with multiple touchpoints in the interlocking web of production and activity. Own foreign assets as well (though we could see other markets blow up too). Don't count on growth, and value stability.
Most of all, hope we avoid the worst of the doomsday scenarios. We survived the other events cited and in some form we should survive this one as well. |
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