volcker says US is not even close to the 70's situation but its only beginning to look like the early 70's. a deep recession will easly offset this problem, this should shut up all you conspiracy nuts
A piece of wood remains a piece until it is carved into a masterpiece. Paper money or metal money remain a piece of paper or metal, if its value is is next to nothing, which is what happens with hyperinflation. The makes the value of money an important issue. To understand it better, the following link explains it with graphs: http://www.sparknotes.com/economics/macro/money/section2.rhtml
Hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic is said to have come on suddenly. I wonder if, when the economy returns to growth mode if all the monetization that is going on won't result in a sudden and unusually high inflation that fuels it's own fire and becomes hyperinflation. Actually, there are only two ways [afaik] out of the government's horrific debt and unfunded liabilities, one is to repudiate the debt, the other is to inflate the currency. Here's the checklist No debt Assets paid for, like real estate Food production capability Equipment for the SHTF scenaro like junk coins, ammo, guns etc.. Actually, having all that stuff is not a bad thing to do even if the SHTF scenario never happens, I have a safe full of stuff made from steel and gold and what all, it just sits there not bothering anybody... Square Foot Gardening is a great read too, I have not started up the garden but when I do... dang, legacy veggies, herbs galore, let the world end I'll die happy... I might get to blow away some people and put "I told you so" on their grave markers..
Huge deficits result in inflation not deflation, as was seen in the early part of the depression. Commodities don't go up in a deflationary depression, they go down, but the do go up with inflation. So the question here is will we eventually have outsized inflation. My answer is yes, it is virtually unavoidable given the huge deficits of recent years. I have sold puts on commodity equities near what i think will be commodity market lows. I expect to be assigned on at least some of these puts. My time horizon is five years for these positions. If i am wrong about inflation, i will lose money. I don't expect to see hyperinflation anytime soon in the US. I do expect to be able to at least negate the effect of inflation by buying commodities.
I would think that in a hyperinflationary environment the last thing you would want to do is have no debt. Inflation is kind to those in debt.
Are you so bored that you had to dig up a year old thread out of the dusty archives to makle people think it was current?