Inflation-Proof Your Portfolio How to Protect Your Money from the Coming Government Hyperinflation

by Voda, David

• ISBN13: 9781118249277
• ISBN10: 1118249275
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-08-07
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

Inflation occurs when the supply of money in circulation begins to become debased and erodes in value. The government, with its insiders and elites, is both the cause of and the primary beneficiary of inflation. To see why, consider the past, when money was linked to metal coins made out of gold or silver. In ancient Rome, a denarius was at first almost 100% pure silver. Slowly and gradually, over time, the Roman government reduced the amount of silver in the denarius until it contained only 2% silver. Why? Because by debasing the currency, the Roman emperors were able to pay off government debts by forcing its citizens to accept coins that had less and less precious metal content. The debased coins were worth less, forcing citizens to spend more and more denarius to buy basic goods. In other words, debasing the currency caused inflation. Today a similar debasing process is going on with American money. Once a U.S. dime was 90% silver; now it is 0% silver. Until 1934, a U.S. dollar bought an ounce of gold for the fixed rate of $20.67. Now it costs over $1,200 to buy an ounce of gold. The U.S. dollar is almost certain to have a sustained run of extremely high inflation over the next decade because of continued huge government deficits and unfunded liabilities like the recent health care reform. Even before the health care makeover, the Petersen/Pew Commission on Budget Reform last year warned that the national debt was expected to grow from 40% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009 to 85% of the GDP in 8 years, 100% in 12 years, and 200% by 2038. In other words, in just a few years our nation will owe twice as much as it produces. Since no conceivable level of taxes and borrowing will enable the U.S. to service such an enormous debt, the cowardly political way to deal with the situation will be to allow inflation to run rampant. Inflation-Proof Your Portfolio will be a useful guide in explaining the debt crisis and the rising inflation and providing key tools to protect readers from inflation.

Author Biography

DAVID VODA is a writer, businessman, and investor currently living in Boulder, Colorado. He has written on business topics for the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times, was a realtor in Palm Springs, California, and buys and sells real estate for his own account. He was a principal in Yes Yes Productions, which produced the award-winning feature, The Secretary. Most recently, he was producer of PJTV's business and economics show, Front Page.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xiii
What This Book Is (and Isn't) About	p. xiv
Time to Take Action	p. xvi
The Dollar's Shrinking Value	p. 1
Why Governments Love Inflation	p. 1
"It Can't Happen Here"-or Can It?	p. 2
How Low Can It Go?	p. 3
What You Don't Notice Won't Upset You	p. 4
Inflation Is Already Picking Up Steam	p. 6
A Hope Is Not a Plan	p. 7
Exchange Dollars for Real Things
Life in the Gold Rush?	p. 13
Gold: Traditional Haven for Nervous Investors	p. 13
Caution: You Are Late to the Gold Party	p. 14
Beware Investors Fleeing Gold	p. 15
Why to Buy Some Gold Anyway	p. 15
Buying Gold Now	p. 17
Gold Supply and Demand	p. 17
How High Will Gold Go?	p. 17
The Easy Way to Buy Gold	p. 20
Downsides of Exchange-Traded Funds	p. 21
Warning: Exchange-Traded Notes = Added Risks	p. 21
Why You Should Have Some Physical Gold	p. 22
What Coins to Have on Hand	p. 23
Why to Avoid Bullion	p. 23
How to Buy Mining Stocks (If You Must)	p. 24
Silver-the Other White Meat	p. 24
Why Silver Is Undervalued	p. 25
The Pros and Cons of Holding Silver Coins and Bullion	p. 26
Learning to Like "Junk"	p. 26
Another Way to Profit from Silver	p. 27
Key Points	p. 27
Real Estate: Home Is Where the Hedge Is	p. 29
Why You Should Own Your Home	p. 29
Is Now the Time to Make Your Housing Move?	p. 31
When Renting Makes More Sense	p. 31
How to Invest in Apartment Buildings	p. 33
How to Steer Clear of Passive Income Losses	p. 34
How to Protect Your Real Estate Equity against Falling Prices	p. 35
Invest in U.S. Farmland	p. 36
Risks of Farmland Investing	p. 36
Key Points	p. 37
Dollar Down = Oil Up	p. 39
Why You Need to Invest in Black Gold	p. 39
Why Proved Reserve Figures Are Unreliable	p. 40
Is the World Running Out of Oil?	p. 41
Will Abiotic Oil Avert a Hubbert Curve Peak?	p. 42
Political and Environmental Pressures Are Pushing Oil Prices Up	p. 43
Shale Gas-Energy Bright Spot?	p. 44
The World's Biggest Oil Companies and Their Ticker Symbols	p. 44
The Easy Way to Own Oil	p. 45
How to Profit from the Oil Supply Chain	p. 45
Should I Invest in Oil Drilling?	p. 46
Canadian Royalty Trusts: Good Investments No Longer	p. 47
Key Points	p. 47
From Diamonds to Trees: Alternative Assets	p. 49
Another Precious Metal-Platinum	p. 49
Why You Should Stay Away from Palladium	p. 50
What about Stamps?	p. 51
The Danger of Diamonds	p. 52
Art: Love It or Leave It	p. 53
How to Get Money to Grow on Trees	p. 53
Profit Opportunity: People Have to Eat	p. 57
The Copper Shortfall	p. 58
Key Points	p. 60
Future Money Is Cheap Money
Beat the Banks at Their Own Game	p. 63
Why Fixed-Rate Mortgages Are Your Friend	p. 63
Cut Your Mortgage in Half	p. 64
Don't Get Locked into HELOCs	p. 65
Buy Big Houses and Lease Used Cars	p. 65
If Your House Is in Foreclosure	p. 66
FDIC "Insurance" May Be Hazardous to Your Wealth	p. 68
Why Your Financial Accounts May Not Be Safe: Bank "Holidays"	p. 68
Save Your Pennies	p. 70
Key Points	p. 71
Dueling with the Devil: Credit Cards and Student Loans	p. 73
Why Credit Cards Aren't Worth the Plastic They're Printed On	p. 73
Don't Expect the New Law to Save You	p. 74
How to Outwit the Credit Card Companies	p. 75
How to Be a Bad Credit Card Customer	p. 76
Goose Your Contracts with a Gold Clause	p. 76
How to Use Inflation to Discount Your Student Loans	p. 77
Beware of Prepaid Tuition Guarantees	p. 79
Key Points	p. 81
Diversify Out of Dollars
Fleeing the Dollar: Foreign Currencies	p. 85
The Dollar: From House of Bricks to House of Straw	p. 85
The Dollar Near-Term: Temporary Upswing	p. 87
Foreign Currencies: Risks and Rewards	p. 88
Which Currencies Should I Invest In?	p. 89
The Chinese Yuan Is Going Up-for Now	p. 89
Beware: China Has Its Own Stimulus Problems	p. 91
The Euro: Slow-Motion Meltdown	p. 92
One Way to Invest in Foreign Currencies: ETFs	p. 96
How to Invest in Foreign Bonds	p. 96
Low-Debt Countries = Good Bond Bets	p. 98
Gold Private Currency	p. 100
Become a Foreign Farmer	p. 101
Key Points	p. 103
Manage Your Government-Regulated Accounts	p. 105
The Threat to Your IRA Wealth	p. 105
Two Mutual Funds You Can Buy to Hedge against Inflation	p. 106
U.S. Treasury Bonds: "Certificates of Guaranteed Confiscation"	p. 106
Twisting in the Wind	p. 107
TIPS: Inflation Protection or Inflation Fraud?	p. 108
Why You Can't Trust Government Inflation Statistics	p. 109
What to Hold in Your IRA	p. 110
Start a Self-Directed IRA	p. 111
Convert to a Roth IRA?	p. 111
When Not to Convert to a Roth IRA	p. 113
Key Points	p. 113
Prepare for the Worst, but Expect the Best
Why Your Taxes Are Going Sky High	p. 117
The Numbers Speak for Themselves: Someone Has to Pay	p. 117
Say Goodbye to Bush Tax Cuts	p. 118
Deficit Lip Service: How to Fool Some of the People Some of the Time	p. 119
The Greek Road to Ruin	p. 119
"New" Deficit Reduction Strategy: Taxes	p. 122
Coming Soon to Your Pocketbook: The Alternative Minimum Tax	p. 122
Loophole: How to Turn a $700,000 Tax Bill into $10 Million Tax-Free Gift	p. 123
How to Tax a Trillion Dollars	p. 124
Your New Health Care Plan: Financed by Deception	p. 124
Baby Boom Legacy: Spiraling Entitlement Costs	p. 125
The Next Money-Grab: Value-Added Tax	p. 126
Tax Fig Leaf: Erroneous Economic Models	p. 127
Ouch! Economic Medicine That Works	p. 129
Why the United States Will Never Be the Same Again	p. 130
Key Points	p. 131
Look for the Warning Signs	p. 133
The Warning Signs of an Imminent Currency Collapse	p. 133
Is the U.S. Government Secretly Engineering a Weak Dollar?	p. 136
How to Be a Billionaire-Zimbabwe-Style	p. 138
Is the United States the Next Greece?	p. 139
Got Gold?	p. 140
Wage and Price Controls	p. 140
The Lesson of the Russian Grandmothers	p. 142
Key Points	p. 143
Looking Up While Hunkering Down	p. 145
Speak Out	p. 145
Another Way to Multiply Your Voice	p. 146
Develop a Necessary Skill	p. 146
Start an Export Business	p. 147
Prepare a "Stay Bag"	p. 148
Tangibles to Keep at Home	p. 151
Whisky and Pot: Your Depression Friends	p. 152
The Health Care Bomb: Better Have That Surgery Now	p. 153
Consider a Move to the Country	p. 154
Buy a Generator	p. 155
Go off the Grid	p. 156
How to Avoid Snoopers	p. 157
Maintaining Your Privacy in a Facebook World	p. 158
Key Points	p. 159
Conclusion How to Sleep at Night, Whatever Happens to the Economy	p. 161
Notes	p. 163
About the Author	p. 189
Index	p. 191
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