Individually, how to investors defend against deflation? Against inflation?

[Moonbeam]

A man can call his own only that which he carries with him after a ship wreak.

 

[bobsmith1492]

Originally posted by: soccerballtux
As CS Lewis wrote, "You cannot have a good society without good men..."

did anybody read it?

Your post kept growing! I wanted to see where it would end up!

I can see how massive deflation would be a bad thing... but so would be massive inflation. Otherwise, I suppose a small amount of inflation is alright, perhaps even desirable.

I think this last line you wrote is critical. It's also something over which the government has absolutely no control.

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
A man can call his own only that which he carries with him after a ship wreck.

Random phrases... you sound like the Eastern philosopher group described in OSC's "Children of the Mind."

In this case you also appear to be paraphrasing Jesus: But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. It's good to stay humble during uncertain economic times and remember the truth Moonbeam has so eloquently spoken. I find the more money I give away, the less there is to worry about.

Food for thought... I have to start working now, though!

 

[StageLeft]

It irritates me. So, what, I should buy a $500K house, brand new car, and a boat and hope that inflation makes them easy to afford?

Well, the silver lining is if you saved all this time, your credit will be awesome, so if you think inflation will wipe it all away you can use that first to leverage yourself into a new car and house

Ultimately, a lot of this is out of your control, so you have to play the game by its rules because you cannot set them.

Now the thing that confuses me about inflation is how we didn't see much inflation in 90's and from 2001-2008, but it would seem we should have given the availability of money. Money was just sloshing around during these times-- 2% interest rate under Greenspan, 1% under Bernanke after 9-11-2001 to free the markets up. We saw "inflation" in the stock market during both of these times; first in the tech stocks and during 2001-2008 in the whole market in general; and we saw asset appreciation in some sectors (housing, for example), but we did not see it anywhere else. Why not?

There are sometimes periods where wages go up a lot but prices actually decrease. Not sure why!

 

[rchiu]

deflation: short stock
Inflation: long stock

use stock market index to get rid of individual stock fluctuation.

And if you are talking about hedging local deflation/inflation, you can always get other countries' stock/investments

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: rchiu
deflation: short stock
Inflation: long stock

use stock market index to get rid of individual stock fluctuation.

And if you are talking about hedging local deflation/inflation, you can always get other countries' stock/investments

I recall some numbers that showed 1970s inflation quite severe, though, and the stock market did not really go up that much, at least relative to it...

 

[soccerballtux]

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: rchiu
deflation: short stock
Inflation: long stock

use stock market index to get rid of individual stock fluctuation.

And if you are talking about hedging local deflation/inflation, you can always get other countries' stock/investments

I recall some numbers that showed 1970s inflation quite severe, though, and the stock market did not really go up that much, at least relative to it...

Real GDP growth from 1972 to 1982 was 27%, in the midst of yearly inflation in the range of 10, at times 12%. Food for thought; munch munch!

 

[Moonbeam]

Could I interest any of you in building Moonbeam's Ark?

 

[Hacp]

Originally posted by: soccerballtux
sigh....nobody bothers replying like usual...losing motivation to write this stuff...did anybody read it?

Huge wall of text+the internet=fail.

 

[soccerballtux]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
Could I interest any of you in building Moonbeam's Ark?

Yawn, Zebo's guide is more fun.