John T. Reed’s hyperinflation/deflation blog

A Facebook post below is about amending the FBAR Form 114. Some readers did not understand why I posted it.1. I write books for a living 2. One is titled How to Protect Your Life Savings from Hyperinflation & Depression, 2nd edition. http://www.johntreed.com/…/how-to-protect-your-life-savings… 3. A key piece of advice in that book is to put enough savings into foreign savings accounts or foreign cash in a Canadian safe deposit box to live off for 24 months. I have both and recommend both. The currencies I recommend and have are AUD, CAD, CHF, DKK, NZD, and SEK.4. Foreign financial accounts must be...

Because of many records of the Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca being released, Panama is now in the spotlight as a place where rich people around the world hide money. Just doing that is not illegal per se. But illegality is often the motive. The six currencies I recommend I have recommended six foreign currencies as places to put savings: AUD, CAD, CHF, DKK, NZD, SEK. I considered Panama long and hard based on many recommendations. Indeed, I almost went there last summer and last month to investigate the country to recommend. But I do not and have never recommended...

“Quantitative easing” in a number of G-20 countries has metastasized into negative interest rates in eight countries. And U.S. Fed chair Janet Yellen has recently said she may urge the Fed to go to negative interest rates. During deflation, people have a great incentive to save and postpone purchases because prices are falling. Negative interest rates are an anti-saving tactic—an artificial way to make your currency-denominated savings lose purchasing power if there is not enough inflation to accomplish that. This is a complex subject that I cover in detail in my book How To Protect Your Life Savings from Hyperinflation and...

I just sent in the money and forms to renew my passport book. They are good for ten years. $110 to renew. You also need a form and an unretouched color head shot taken in the last six months. I was going to use my Facebook photo, but it must have a white, not black, background. So I went to Walgreens. $14.99 including tax and it took about four minutes.In my research on past hyperinflation crises around the world, I found that leaving the country in question was essentially required for having a reasonably healthy, normal life until the crisis...

Copyright John T. Reed 2014 Coast Starlight Amtrak train I rode the Coast Starlight to Vancouver, BC. I had previously gone south on that train to visit my son, Steve, who lives in LA. Amtrak is a pleasant, metabolism-slowing interlude. I was scared about my trip taking place on Saturday night and all day Sunday during summer vacation. My first Amtrak trip was spoiled to an extent by bored children using the train and observation car as a playground. But the Coast Starlight is a bit different. The sleeping cars are behind the baggage car which is behind the locomotives. Then...