huskerbob

How the U.S. Financial Crisis Resembles Japan’s 'Lost Decade' - And How to Play It, Part II

Puddle Jumping- Gold is not money? Maybe you should read the constitution. The U.S. of A. still mints gold and silver coins. If you haven't noticed, these are much more effective as a store of value (one of the traditional definitions of money) than our federal reserve notes. You can fill your gas tank with the same number of silver coins as you could 10 years ago. Try doing that with federal reserve notes!
The author's recommendations seem to make sense: gold as an inflation hedge and investment, and try to find investments which will grow along with the economies in other parts of the world, as the U.S. economy could be stagnant for some time.
Is that fear mongering or prudent advice? As we have finished with the biggest economic boom and longest bull run in our history, is it fear mongering to believe that we may have a lengthy cooling-off period?
Hasn't consumer spending been the engine of our economy? What are consumers going to spend now that credit is contracting, and with our savings rate less than zero?
As for gold, about 1.5% of investment dollars are in gold right now. At the height of the ugliness in the late 70's, gold had captured closer to 25% of investment dollars. This could happen again because people recognize gold as a store of value, the definition of money.