Pensions and inflation

Let me just throw it out there.

1) Pension funds are at risk--all of them, some more than others.  If you're under the age of 60, so is Social Security.  I've been saying this for years, despite some very smart people refuting me.  We will see who is right on this, but the chorus of alarm bells is growing in my favor.

2) Inflation will wipe out those on fixed incomes, especially retirees.  Again, the audience has been tone deaf to my exhortations.  Recent price increases point again towards inflation--not deflation.

As the previous blog/article mentioned <click here>, protecting one's purchasing power now requires citizens to become speculators, as the Fed has artificially kept interest rates--and hence bond yields, low.  This helps the Fed's bloated balance sheet, but it destroys the living standards of US citizens on fixed incomes.

As a result, protecting one's purchasing power unfortunately now must include unconventional investment strategies, as the central bank debases the dollar in an unsuccessful attempt to close the huge fiscal gaps.  Our country's debt will destroy its citizens' purchasing power--it's just a matter of time before people realize it, and most people will realize it after it's too late.

The government can fool the majority of the people for only so long.  Declaring inflation is only 2% when it's actually closer to 10% doesn't work when folks see prices at the gas pump increase 100%.  People will eventually realize that unemployment is not the officially calculated 9% but actually 22%--all they have to do is look around.  And now that top government and banking authorities are sounding the alarm bells <click here>, even while Congress hmm's and haw's, it is time to take notice.

With the increasingly corrupt and stringent FDA killing off promising biotech companies, the only growth industries left in America are bankruptcy law and building IPhone apps.  Add to that list oil, natural gas, agriculture, some technology, and precious metals mining companies.  We will see how long Apple, Google, and NetFlix can carry the US economy.  Hint:  not for long.