John T. Reed’s hyperinflation/deflation blog

Copyright 2015 John T. Reed My wife just asked me if maybe now is the time to buy silver. I revised and updated my spreadsheet on the matter. Year price $/oz 2015 dollars 1965 $1.29 $9.77 1966 $1.29 $9.50 1967 $2.06 $14.72 1968 $1.96 $13.44 1969 $1.81 $11.77 1970 $1.64 $10.09 1971 $1.39 $8.19 1972 $1.98 $11.30 1973 $3.14 $16.88 1974 $4.39 $21.25 1975 $4.09 $18.14 1976 $4.35 $18.24 1977 $4.71 $18.55 1978 $5.93 $21.70 1979 $21.79 $71.62 1980 $16.39 $47.47 1981 $8.43 $22.13 1982 $10.59 $26.19 1983 $9.12 $21.85 1984 $6.69 $15.37 1985 $5.89 $13.06 1986 $5.36 $11.67 1987...

On Monday, My wife and I toured the gold vault in the New York Federal Reserve Building in New York City. Was this because my book on hyperinflation makes me a VIP or because my wife works for the San Francisco Fed? No. It’s open to the public, although it is hard to get a spot in a tour. You have to try to make a reservation online on a certain date and time and the slots “sell out” in seconds. The biggest gold cache there is The U.S. government stores its gold famously at Fort Knox, and less famously at...

For five years, I have been advocating buying Swiss francs (CHF) as a hedge against possible U.S. dollar (USD) hyperinflation. Furthermore, I urged you to hold them not in bank accounts but in cash in a Canadian safe deposit box. You don’t want to hold cash generally for two reasons: it can only be withdrawn, deposited, or moved in person. And if the currency in question is inflating, it loses purchases power, although interest on the account can ameliorate that or even turn a real profit if it is greater than the inflation rate. But the opposite is true if...

A reader sent me this link saying Venezuela is experiencing all the things I predict for any hyperinflated country. One is empty store shelves. A picture is worth a thousand words so take a look at this photo of empty shelves in Venezuela. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/19/world/americas/few-in-venezuela-want-bolivars-but-no-one-can-spare-a-dime.html?_r=1 My book below details the numerous woes that hyperinflation causes. Venezuela is just current proof, as have been the similar episodes of hyperinflation going back to the year 400 BC. Further evidence was not needed by me, but if you don’t believe evidence that is more than a week old, read this NY Times article.

It Cant Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis Copyright 2012 by John T. Reed In the course of researching my book How to Protect Your Life Savings from Hyperinflation & Depression  I came across mention of the novel It Can’t Happen Here (caution: reading this Wikipedia write-up will spoil the novel for you) by Sinclair Lewis. I just got the book and read it. Sinclair Lewis was a 1920s and 1930s, Nobel Prize-winning, astonishingly successful novelist and playwright. His top seller, Main Street, was, according to his biographer Mark Schorer “the most sensational event in twentieth-century American publishing history.” His royalties...