scholastica8

What Effect Will Hyperinflation Have?

Something else about hyperinflation. The best way to survive it is to get your assets out & yourself out of the country. If that can't be done, even people with loads of hard assets don't come out the other side.

If your hard assets are gold, jewels, whatever, you sell bit by bit at whatever price you can get in order to feed the family, keep the lights on, etc. There may not be that many buyers because only the truly wealthy will have cash to spend on anything but necessities. So, more likely you barter whatever you have that someone else might need, for something that you need.... but it will have to be local because shipping fees will be skyhigh.

If you have hard assets in the form of oil stocks, gold ETFs, Swiss Francs ETFs whatever, you end up having to sell those off to make ends meet. Most affluent people, unless you are super wealthy, in which case you escape the country, can hold out for about 3 years. This is usually the point at which a government issues new currency.

What Effect Will Hyperinflation Have?

Hydrogen Bob.... The problem with the idea of switching to more products made here, more home-grown oil production, etc. is that if we do hit hyperinflation, the costs of raw materials will skyrocket. The price of a barrel of hyperinflated oil, may not keep pace with the cost of producing that oil. Most of our Chevys have parts produced outside the US. Will there be the money, at hyperinflated prices, to retool factories, to purchase the raw materials, etc.

Another difficulty is that if we do hit hyperinflation with super expensive gasoline, will workers be able to get to work? Cities, like citizens, won't be able to afford to run mass transit.

We are in scary times.

Sarah Palin: Wall Street's Candidate

About that natural gas pipeline:

1. The Lower 48 has ample supplies of natural gas & we have prices hedged on Canadian gas for years to come. We have even more gas coming online in the Lower 48. So, we don't really need Alaskan gas. Therefore, the "earmarked" money for the Alaskan project would have been better spent expanding our gas infrastructure down here & modernizing & increasing the capacity of our electrical grid.

2. The Alaskan natural gas pipeline is a feasible project only if natural gas prices are very high. This is why it remained on the drawing board for 30 yrs.

3. It is one of the largest construction projects in history, but the contract was awarded not to a US company, but to a Canadian company.

Is Crude Oil a 'Bubble' Ready to Burst?

<<<< If one wants to understand the oil "bubble" simply read the article on page A8 of yesterday's (5/29/08) Wall Street Journal titled: "Oil Exporters Are Unable to Keep Up with Demand" and check out the production data given. I was actually shocked the WSJ printed such an article, but they (unlike CNBC and most other US media) are beginning the change the normal US "peak oil denial" stance. >>>>

My greatest worry is how much can we trust our usual sources?

Who now owns WSJ, Barron's, Dow Jones? What else might he have his fingers in & how can he benefit his "other" assets? Has this person been known to play nice?