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Politics : The Obama - Clinton Disaster -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Patricia Trinchero who wrote (3002)	12/11/2008 5:15:22 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 103300

"I cannot even guess how we can avoid a serious depression caused by hyperinflation." The main problem NOW is deflation, not inflation. (Deflation is terrible for anyone who owes a lot of debts --- like, say the U.S. of A. --- because it makes it even harder to repay the debts. Whereas inflation decreases the value of debt - thus making debt easier to pay with devalued dollars.) Right NOW the financial crisis is kicking off DEFLATION (same thing that devastated Japan for more than a decade... but possibly worse this particular time).... But the 'cure' for the deflation (governments all around the world printing money like mad and 'dropping it from helicopters' like the famous phrase of our Federal Reserve Chairman) is what's likely to kick-off INFLATION in the longer-term. (Unless the monetary authorities 'mop-up the excess money sloshing around the world... before it raises the price levels of real goods too far. But... when was the last time politicians and central bankers ever got THAT right? <g>) Re: "And, I don't know how to hedge against it." Easy enough: exactly what worked during the LAST serious episode of structural inflation that our nation endured (the entire decade of the 1970s): REAL TANGIBLE ASSETS. (Things of value you can place your hands on.) Leading the returns for that decade were rare Chinese porcelain, collectibles and antiques, precious metals, real estate (that last was also driven by DEMOGRAPHIC factors that we don't have as much of right now - such as the surge of baby boomers into housing), commodities of all sorts (we might have a bigger demographic kick now for some of those things - considering the Billions of folks in China and India, etc., who are moving up and consuming more....) The main problem (as it usually is) seems to be getting the timing correct for the swing from DEFLATION to INFLATION.