How to have the milk you need to survive a hyperinflation bout

My book How to Protect Your Life Savings from Hyperinflation & Depression, 2nd edition has a chapter titled “Advance purchase and Sale.” It refers to the fact that if we have inflation, you will wish you had purchased everything you need to the rest of your life before it happened. And if we have depression, which is deflation, you will wish you had sold everything you no longer need before it happened.

Is buying everything you need for the rest of your life possible? Milk, for example, does not last that long.

Actually, hyperinflation historically only lasts six to 24 months. It is so intolerable the public eventually demands repealing the politically motivated laws that cause hyperinflation to persist: price controls, capital controls, rationing, anti-hoarding laws, and financial repression laws.

Once those laws are repealed, hyperinflation goes away overnight, although the purchasing power of the hyperinflated currency remains where it was when the hyperinflation ended. Thereafter, you either use a new, trusted currency created by the nation with the hyperinflated currency or you are allowed to use foreign currency. A number of Latin American countries have been using the US dollar as their official currency for years.

So you only need enough advance purchases to last you the six to 24 months. Furthermore, you can just leave the country for ones that are not hyperinflated, then return when the US hyperinflation ends. That requires a current passport and foreign currency that has not hyperinflated to support yourself in the foreign country in question. It need not be the country whose currency you have. For example, you could spend the time in Australia and New Zealand and live off your Canadian saving account which you would access electronically and convert into AUD and NZD.

But back to milk. UHT milk has a best-by date about nine months after you buy it. It need not be refrigerated until you open it. My local supermarket sells two brands: Horizon and Organics. I keep them in a pantry closet and have a current 12 pack in the frige.

I have seen the pice of a 12/pack rise as high as $18.99, which angered me and I wrote about it. Recently, I went to buy two packs. Organics was $11.99; Horizon, $13.99. But the Organics stack was all chocolate. I wanted low-fat white milk.

When they asked if I found everything at the checkout counter, I said no. I refused to pay $13.99 for a product identical to the one sold for $11.99. The manager said she would sell the Horizon to me for $11.99. “Really? You guys negotiate prices?” Then, when she checked me out, the computer said the price of the Horizon low-fat was $10.99! Cool! Lately, it has normally been $9.99.

Anyway, the method for buying all the milk you need for 24 months of hyperinflation is to buy UHT and always have about a year supply on hand, plus some dry-pack powdered milk you buy from your local Mormon church store. (The Mormons tell me you have to really mix the powdered milk with water extremely thoroughly then refrigerate it overnight.)

Or you could just put enough money abroad to live there for two years on 90-day tourist visas.

In theory a pregnant cow whose fetus was a heifer would supply you with fresh milk for even longer but unless you are already a farmer, that is not practical.