Can Anything Stop It?
For weeks, I’ve been doing talk-radio interviews to help me sell my book, How to Prosper During the Coming Bad Years in the 21st Century. It’s déjà vu all over again, and I’m enjoying success.
But often I’ve been asked: “What advice would you give to the presidential candidates to head off the coming hyperinflationary depression?”
My answer is two-fold:
- “I would tell them to stop lying to us. They are all making promises no president can keep. Our president is not an emperor or an absolute ruler; many promises being made can only be kept by Congress. No president can keep all those promises, and in many cases, even he if could, he shouldn’t.”
- “I’m not in the business of curing national problems; I’m not smart enough to do that. I’m trying to help middle-class Americans who aren’t economists and are less concerned with solving the national problems than protecting themselves. My role is to help them know what to do with the money they have. Many of them have never “invested” before, and certainly not on Wall Street. But the average American is making investment decisions whether he knows it or not.”
We all have earned a certain amount of money by performing our jobs. We have to decide what to do with that money, so my advice is two-fold:
- It is defensive. The real problem is not a depression like the 30s coming back. That’s not likely. That depression was deflationary in nature. 25 percent of the people were out of work and had no income, but you could buy a loaf of bread for a nickel. In the inflation we face, the cost of a loaf of bread will be measured in dollars, perhaps many of them. It’s a different problem entirely. We face runaway inflation, which has already started. My job is to teach you how to cope with the fact that during hyperinflation, commerce becomes undependable. Every store depends on trucks which roll up to their back doors every day and restock the shelves which were attacked by buyers the day before.In an inflationary environment, the cost of fuel soars. Independent truckers, especially, cannot afford to drive their trucks because of the cost of fuel. Strikes become endemic. Although there will always be some commerce, it will not be as dependable as you would like. You may not be able to buy what you want when you want it, at a price you can afford.
My defensive advice is really simple; when you buy anything, don’t just buy one. Buy five or six for storage. You will pay today’s prices and consume them at tomorrow’s higher prices. That’s a fine investment.It doesn’t require some kind of national calamity to make sense, but we will have a national calamity – hyperinflation.
- When you have cash to invest, don’t invest in anything denominated in dollars because dollars will become worth less and less (including most stocks, bonds and cash).
The dollar is supposed to be a means of exchange and a store of value. It is still a means of exchange and will continue to be for some time, but it has long ago ceased to be a store of value. Call The Superior Gold Group and start building your portfolio with precious metals and make GOLD your portfolio’s BEST FRIEND at 888-969-6465
One common question from the radio hosts has been “what proof do you have that you are right about a runaway inflation?”
Haven’t you been looking? It’s all around you! It’s already started. Look at the price of gasoline, wheat and corn. Eggs are up 30 percent. The major factor in the increase of a barrel of oil is not that oil is becoming scarce or more valuable. There is enough oil in the United States to meet demands for the next 60 years. There is more oil in the shale in Utah and Colorado than there is in Saudi Arabia. There is no real actual shortage, although it is a function of price and politics.
As oil becomes more expensive, it becomes more useful to consider the oil shale in the Rockies. It is approaching a price where exploiting oil shale is profitable. We know the oil is there.
What causes the increase in the oil price? Inflation, pure and simple. Oil is denominated in dollars, and the value of a dollar is shrinking, so producers want more dollars for a barrel of oil. The oil price simply reflects of the decreasing value of the dollar.
Oil is not the only sensitive indicator of the value of the dollar. The dollar is now in its twilight years; it is rapidly diminishing in value. You once could buy the best suit of clothes in town with two pairs of pants from the best tailor around, for one American gold piece. You can still buy the best suit of clothes with two pairs of pants from the best tailor in town with the value of one American gold piece. The price of gold also reflects the loss of value in the dollar.
There are really two things to watch, the price of oil and the prices of gold and silver.
Will Rogers once said, “Invest in inflation; it’s the only thing that’s going up.” That’s pretty funny, but it is also a profound truth. There are ways to invest in inflation. Stop buying most investments which are denominated in dollars. The stock market is denominated in dollars, although certain stocks are the same as investing in inflation.
I like uranium stocks because we will be building many nuclear plants, and there is only half enough uranium above ground to fuel them, so Uranium Mining Stocks will do very well over the years.
I like Oil Service Stocks – companies that build and service oil rigs.
I like Mining Stocks, not just for gold and silver, but for basic metals like copper because of the soaring demands of an exploding population in China and India which will lead to more and more construction. They will need raw materials. So we are now in an age of basic raw materials, and we must look beyond America to see what’s happening in the rest of the world.
Doing these interviews has caused me to think far more broadly about the roots of the problems we face, especially if it is denominated in shrinking dollars.
It’s very simple. You should get rid of your dollars by investing in inflation. What is the alternative? Not foreign currencies, which is what Wall Street would like you to do, because inflation is contagious and will affect every currency in the world. You must base your future portfolio in gold and silver and their derivatives because the world is changing; the lead article in this newsletter explains how you have to make occasional market changes in how you approach these metals.
The fundamentals are changing, and your outlook must change also. Hidden behind these problems is a glowing opportunity. Perhaps once in a lifetime we face a change as fundamental as this, allowing us to invest early in the game and turn small amounts of paper dollars into genuine wealth. That is what The Ruff Times is devoted to.
The Collapse of the Dollar?
I’ve received several emails and letters from subscribers asking “what will happen to gold and silver denominated in dollars if there is a collapse of the dollar and it becomes worthless.”
The term worthless is a combination of two words – “worth” and “less.” I’m of the opinion that the dollar will not become worthless, it will just become worth less. If we have runaway inflation, the dollar still exists and has some value, it just won’t have as much value as it has now, and it will take more dollars to buy stuff.
Currency is supposed to be a means of exchange and a store of value. The dollar today is a means of exchange and will continue to be a means of exchange as long as it is in existence. But it has ceased to be a store of value. Consequently, this argues that one of the worst long-term holdings is cash in the bank. It sounds prudent to have a lot of cash, but that assumes that the dollar is stable and continues to maintain its value. That is not the case now and will be the case less and less as years go on.
So gold and silver will retain their value. Denominated in dollars the nominal value will multiply many times over.
A similar question is, “what will happen to gold and silver if the stock market collapses.”
The price of gold and silver has nothing to do with the stock market. It is an international phenomenon. If the dollar becomes useless as an everyday currency, you can bet that gold and silver will become valuable as currency. It has happened several times throughout history, ever since the invention of the printing press. When a currency becomes less valuable, gold and silver becomes more valuable.
I remember during the metals’ bull market of the 1970s when we were worried about gas rising to $1.50 a gallon, some enterprising gas stations put up signs selling gas for a dime a gallon. Of course, they wanted pre-1964, 90-percent silver dimes which had value in excess of a gallon of gas. If you were smart, you didn’t fall for it. You were better off keeping the coins to yourself.
Let’s make sure we don’t throw words around carelessly, like “worthless.” I am not suggesting the dollar will become “worthless;” it will become worth less in terms of its utility in buying every-day commodities.
The value of the dollar is measured in two ways:
- Its value relative to foreign currencies like, for example, it will cost you considerably more to go to Europe because the Euro has increased in value relative to the dollar, and everything will be more expensive;
and
- It is also a measure of what the dollar will buy in America, which is an entirely different matter. In either case, gold and silver are historically the best answers.Call The Superior Gold Group and start building your portfolio with precious metals and make GOLD your portfolio’s BEST FRIEND at 888-969-6465
By Howard Ruff
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