{"id":287271,"date":"2016-12-26T00:10:10","date_gmt":"2016-12-25T23:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/your-personal-finances-and-freedom\/"},"modified":"2016-12-26T00:10:10","modified_gmt":"2016-12-25T23:10:10","slug":"your-personal-finances-and-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/your-personal-finances-and-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Personal Finances and Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"
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So, Trump has won the election. Of course, anything can happen between now and his presumed inauguration on January 20. The Swamp Creatures tried to cause a recount in a\u00a0so-called Purple States that would have changed the number of electors in Hillary\u2019s favor. They tried other ways to somehow influence Trump electors to vote for Hillary. None of this would have been an issue if Baby Bush II, Jeb, had been the Republican nominee, as was supposed to have happened. It all just shows what a transparent (a word these people love to use) fraud \u201cdemocracy\u201d has become.<\/p>\n

Let the hoi polloi cast a meaningless vote, so they have the illusion of being in control. Instead of seeing themselves as subjects, they\u2019ll think they\u2019re \u201cwe the people,\u201d who actually have some say in what happens. That way they\u2019ll pay their taxes willingly, enthusiastically sign on to aggressive wars on the other side of the world against people they know nothing about, and generally do as they\u2019re told. Because it\u2019s supposed to be patriotic. \u201cDemocracy\u201d is a much more effective scam for controlling the plebs than kingship or dictatorship.<\/p>\n

That said, the Establishment, the Deep State, was genuinely shocked and appalled by Trump\u2019s victory. As Baby Bush the First would have said, they misunderestimated how angry the average voter was. That\u2019s because the Coastal Democratic Elite are totally out of touch with the common man. But they needn\u2019t fret too much. They\u2019ll be re-installed, with a vengeance, in four years.<\/p>\n

Why are the most advertised Gold and Silver coins NOT the best way to invest?<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

That will likely be true for two reasons:<\/p>\n

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1.\u00a0Simple demographics. The groups that vote Democrat (e.g., blacks, Hispanics, urban dwellers, immigrants, Millennials) are growing in numbers faster than those who vote Republican. Republicans are older people, and the Boomers (born 1946\u20131966) and the Silent Generation (1926\u20131946) are dying off. More people are moving to the cities, and that influences them to vote Democratic. More people (still, idiotically) are pursuing higher education, and that also influences them to vote Democrat.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0The Greater Depression. One definition of a depression is a period of time when distortions and misallocations of capital are liquidated. A time when bubbles caused by monetary expansion are popped. A time when unsound businesses fail. I re-emphasize this because the party on whose watch it happens is automatically kicked out. So, the Democrats actually got quite lucky not to be in office when the time bomb goes off. Trump could easily go down as Herbert Hoover II.
\n\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/span>
\nSpeculator (High Groun…<\/a><\/span><\/span>
\nDoug Casey, John Hunt<\/span>
\nBest Price: <\/span>$18.43<\/span><\/span>
\nBuy New <\/span>$13.93<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/a><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What could change things? A serious war, much bigger than the sports wars the US is currently engaged in, is the biggest danger. That\u2019s much less likely with Trump than Hillary, but these things have a life of their own. My guess for the next president is either a left-wing general (because Americans love and trust their military), or a left-wing populist, like Elizabeth Warren.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s crystal balling at this point. Let\u2019s proceed on the assumption Trump is actually going to be the president for at least the next four years. Although problematical, he\u2019s a vast improvement over Hillary. What will it mean for the US and the world? More importantly, what will it mean for your personal finances and freedom? Let\u2019s look at the possibilities.<\/p>\n

Bonds<\/strong>\u2014With bonds, we\u2019re at the peak of the biggest financial bubble in world history. This is a very big deal.<\/p>\n

Interest rates move in very long cycles. They went up from the mid-1940s to the early \u201980s, when long-term government bonds peaked at close to 16%, and T-Bills at over 16%. I thought they hit bottom years ago, but the cycle overshot.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

My guess is that they\u2019re headed up in earnest now. And Trump, as someone who understands business (even though he doesn\u2019t understand economics), will likely (I think\u2026) do what he can to send them higher. Why? He understands the country needs to save, to rebuild capital. And higher rates will encourage saving and discourage debt.<\/p>\n

The risk is that, with all the debt that\u2019s been put on in the last decade, debtors will be hard-pressed to service it. That includes the USG with $20 trillion of on-balance-sheet debt and a lot more in the way of off-balance-sheet debt, guarantees, and contingent liabilities. Much of it will be activated if higher rates cause a lot of defaults.<\/p>\n

What should you do? Sell all your bonds.<\/p>\n

Real Estate<\/strong>\u2014Property, at least in the English-speaking world, floats on a sea of debt. Interest rates go up, real estate prices go down. The economy goes down, so do property prices. Add to that the aging US population, which isn\u2019t good for the property; as people age, they downsize. Add to that the fact we\u2019re in another real estate bubble, similar to what we saw in the mid-oughts. After bonds, the property is likely the worst place to be. In fact, I\u2019ll go so far as to say the great post\u2013World War II property boom is at an end\u2014but that\u2019s a subject for another time. There\u2019s not much that Trump can do to fix this.<\/p>\n

What should you do? Lighten up on property. Make sure any mortgages you keep are at fixed rates.<\/p>\n

Stocks<\/strong>\u2014If Trump only follows through with his promise to cut taxes, and eliminate two old regulations for every new one, it would be wonderful for the economy. But the economy and the stock market are two different things; they only correlate over the long run. I suppose he\u2019ll follow through with his promise to build lots of new infrastructures. Government deficits will soar, and only the Fed will be on hand to buy all that new debt.<\/p>\n

Infrastructure companies will get a fat slug of the newly printed money. But I find it hard to get enthusiastic about the stock market. In terms of dividends, P\/E ratios, or book value, it\u2019s already at one of the highest levels ever. Bear in mind that well-selected stocks can still go up, even if the market as a whole goes down.<\/p>\n

That said, I feel more comfortable with shorts than longs at this point.<\/p>\n

Gold and Commodities<\/strong>\u2014Frankly, where do you put your money when almost everything is overpriced? Commodities are coming out of a five-year-long bear market. They\u2019re about the only thing that\u2019s cheap. That\u2019s true relative to their cost of production (farmers, ranchers, and miners are breaking even, at best, all over the world). And it\u2019s true relative to their history (they\u2019re down 50% from the peak of 2011).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In other words, commodities are a much safer place for your capital than stocks, bonds, or real estate (excepting agricultural property) for the foreseeable future. The problem is that it\u2019s hard to hold a carload of wheat or ten tons of sugar.<\/p>\n

Remember that gold and other commodities aren\u2019t \u201cinvestments.\u201d An investment is something that acts to create new wealth. They\u2019re simply assets. Sometimes they can be excellent speculations. Gold, however, is money and will remain so long after the US destroys its currency.<\/p>\n

I recommend, therefore, that you accumulate gold and silver instead of plunging into conventional investments. Check with the dealers we list in\u00a0The Gold Book<\/em>\u00a0to see who you prefer to work with. [Editor\u2019s Note:\u00a0The Gold Book<\/em>\u00a0is exclusive to readers of\u00a0The Casey Report<\/em>, which you can sign up for at the end of today\u2019s essay.] But if you don\u2019t have a significant position in the metals already, please get going.<\/p>\n

A final thought. It\u2019s usually a mistake to count on any head of state to make things in a country better. It can certainly happen\u2014as with Erhard in Germany after WW2, Pinochet in Chile, Thatcher in Britain,\u00a0or even Reagan in the US. Maybe it will be true of Trump. He\u2019s got a much stronger personality than Reagan, for openers. But the bigger and older a State gets, the harder it is to change. It\u2019s comparable to trying to stop a fully loaded supertanker.<\/p>\n

Reprinted with permission from\u00a0.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Best of Doug Casey<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, Trump has won the election. Of course, anything can happen between now and his presumed inauguration on January 20. The Swamp Creatures tried to cause a recount in a\u00a0so-called Purple States that would have changed the number of electors in Hillary\u2019s favor. They tried other ways to somehow influence Trump electors to vote for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-287271","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}