

What Happens If Things Go Really Badly? $15 Trillion of Debt in Default - erikstarck
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/07/part-5a-what-happens-if-things-go.html

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anthony_barker
WILL GROWING GOVERNMENT DEBT FORCE A DEFAULT IN JAPAN?

Unlikely. That's mainly because Japan has almost no foreign currency-
denominated debt obligations and more than 90 percent of Japanese government
bonds are held by domestic investors, who are typically risk averse.

It is also the world's largest creditor nation, with net external assets of
225.5 trillion yen, and it still enjoys a current account surplus.

<http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTOE60P0BH20100127>

For safe investments jewelry and Art do well in turbulent times:

[http://books.google.ca/books?id=tuxGXgJ_HEwC&pg=PA222...](http://books.google.ca/books?id=tuxGXgJ_HEwC&pg=PA222&lpg=PA222&dq=Barton+Biggs+jewelry+investments&source=bl&ots=QOTXH5nGG7&sig=lxhgoJotxQe7KozfICjJ5FUas7E&hl=en&ei=FHdETN3ZMMSAnQfXleC-
Cw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CCcQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q&f=false)

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c1sc0
So, where would HN users move their money in a scenario like this? My
homecountry is on the default list.

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erikstarck
Plan A: buy gold.

Plan B: buy a shotgun, a motorcycle, lots of fuel and fresh water.

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mattmillr
(a) Gold: shiny, heavy, and generally useless. Valuable only if someone else
agrees it is valuable. (b) Guns, ammo, food, and fuel: Useful. Inherently
valuable and good for barter.

~~~
wil2k
Well, although you can't eat it, gold has been considered to be of value for a
good couple of millenia. Why? because you can't print more of it. And a gold
coin can represent more food that you can carry with you.

Fiat money is consists just dead trees with ink on them or worse, it's created
digitally.

The story goes that over half of the current USD money supply has been created
in the last 4-5 years or so... can you say inflation?!? :O

