John T. Reed’s news blog

“Why were we not warned of this?” will be the question on everyone’s lips if and when the USD hyperinflates. If you Google “inflation,” you will find an increasing number of media stories. But if you Google “hyperinflation,” you will find next to zero. Is hyperinflation a subset of inflation? More like the other way around. Hyperinflation is to inflation what lightning is to a lightning bug. Succinctly, hyperinflation wipes out all your dollar-denominated assets (cash, bank accounts pensions, annuities like social security, cash value life insurance, American bonds, certificates of deposit) and your dollar-denominated debt (mortgages—other types of debt may be...

My wife inherited a bunch of currency. Below are photos of them. Many were obtained abroad in the 1940s. She assigned me the task of selling them or converting them to USD if possible. If you want any of them, tell me which and your offer. If you have any information about converting them to US dollars, I would appreciate hearing how I would do that.    

“Does the Fed Have the Will to Fight Inflation?” is a WSJ op-ed today. . The author, Jason de Sena Trennert, uses the phrase “financial repression.” First time in a long time I have seen that phrase. I have said that is one of the five bad laws that hyperinflated governments pass. The others are capital controls, price controls, rationing, and anti-hoarding laws. . Financial repression means the government restricting to a low level how much interest can be paid on your money. We had it in 1975 and before. Banks were not allowed to pay interest on checking accounts....

Liquidity could be described as how long it takes you to convert an asset to cash (United States dollar—USD). Low score wins. Generally, real estate is considered illiquid. It is a hard asset. Everything that is not denominated in dollars is a hard asset. Many people are not aware of this, but there are such things as liquid hard assets. But how fast you can convert various types of real estate to USD varies. The worst is probably raw land. You are usually recommended to list it for six months with a Realtor® to sell it. It is hard to...

Let’s say you want to buy a duplex and make a $20K profit on rehab. What does that mean you have to do? You have to pay transaction costs when you buy. Valuepeguin-com says 3% to 5%. Call it 4%. You also have to pay the rehab costs. You also have to pay the selling transaction costs. Zillow says 8% to 10%. Call it 9%. If the property is vacant while you are doing the rehab, you also must pay the carrying costs—mortgage payments and operating expenses like taxes, insurance, etc. Finally, there is your profit which we already said...