Is the U.S. going to collapse economically? need financial advice

[HalfLotus]

Yes. Get as much of your wealth out of Dollars as possible.

[Alinestra Covelia]

These guys would appear to agree with you.

[Darius871]

Yes. Get as much of your wealth out of Dollars as possible.

HL, I'm serious when I tell you I'll give you $0.10 worth of gold for every dollar you have. They're worthless anyway, right? PM me.

[zakubandit]

I didn't realize that MSNBC, CNN, Times, US Today, Washington Post, etc. all went republican...wow, I guess I must have missed that. And yea, all those SCOTUS Justices must all be republican, they don't have a non-partisan/bi-partisan/tri-partisan bone in their frail old bodies. Man, all those rich ass celebrities must have been acting as a spy when they endorsed all those democrat bills and reps. I never realized how super massive the republican party was during the Bush years. I mean hell, they make BamBam look like a fetus' nutsack. Oh yea thats right, BamBam has almost managed to add the same amount to the deficit as Bush did in his entire term. Hmm, guess that great Puby media bubble hasn't burst yet, cause they....oh wait, they don't make Bush look good. They idolize BamBam and his misadventures around the world doing apologies one country at a time

[Zkribbler]

I didn't realize that MSNBC, CNN, Times, US Today, Washington Post, etc. all went republican...wow, I guess I must have missed that. And yea, all those SCOTUS Justices must all be republican, they don't have a non-partisan/bi-partisan/tri-partisan bone in their frail old bodies. Man, all those rich ass celebrities ...

Your short list kinda proves my point. And besides, MSNBC and USA Today aren't news media, they are entertainment media pretending to be news media. CNN has Ted Turner's fingerprints all over it. When I was active in labor in Los Angeles, we hated the Times because it would never cover a news story that made labor look good. The Washington Post? -- okay, that's one (1). I didn't say all SCOTUS justices were Republicans; I said the Republicans controlled the Supreme Court -- does anyone disagree?? And all those rich ass celebrities -- you didn't mention any names; how about: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Charlton Heston; Fred Thompson, Mel Gibson?

[Dinner]

Hey Zibber. Glad to see you here.

[Dis]

Buy the Fallout games and play them to get a better sense of how to survive.

done and done (don't have 3, cant' run it)

[Alinestra Covelia]

Not to worry - it's also out on XBox360, although the controls are as imprecise as you'd expect a gamepad to be.

[HalfLotus]

HL, I'm serious when I tell you I'll give you $0.10 worth of gold for every dollar you have. They're worthless anyway, right? PM me.

Not yet, but likely will be before too long.

Just in the last week I read about France, China, and Russia calling for a new world currency. The list of such countries is about two dozen long.

The Dollar is no longer Russia's primary reserve (Euro is, I believe). The Dollar was reduced from ~60% of its reserves to ~40%.

China has shifted away from U.S. Bonds by some degree.

One of the monstrous bailout bills appropriated a ton of money to the IMF for use with SDRs, which is poised to be the new 'World Reserve'.

Soros and other 'movers and shakers' have stated that the Dollar's days are numbered. There is a lot of evidence which points in that direction.

Hell, even the Pope called for a 'new economic order' this week.

[DaShi]

I hope they make the RMB the new world currency.

[Alinestra Covelia]

I'm not sure that would help at all. It would just make the global standard prone to a different nation's set of economic fluctuations.

What about a floating basket of currencies? Say, keyed to the ten largest countries by GDP (or PPP?) or whatever metric is suitable.

You could get the USD, Japanese yen, German deutschmark, GBP, RMB, franc, Russian rouble, Italian lira, and then two more (maybe Brazilian and Indian currencies?).

UK-Germany-France-Italy were my choices because as I last recall they were the four largest economies in the EU. The euro could replace all four of them which would reduce the basket to seven.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Your short list kinda proves I said the Republicans controlled the Supreme Court -- does anyone disagree??

Me. Its split 4-4 with Kennedy as a swing vote. Has been all through 2000 through present.

Heck for a long time it was 4(Left) vs. 3 right with 2 swing (Kennedy and Oconnor)

[HalfLotus]

What about a floating basket of currencies? Say, keyed to the ten largest countries by GDP (or PPP?) or whatever metric is suitable.

This is similar to how SDRs (Special Drawing Rights, the long-dormant and now very active IMF 'currency') work. SDR is a basket of Dollar, Euro, Sterling, and Yuan.

Here is the index:

http://www.imf.org/external/np/fin/data/rms_sdrv.aspx

It would seem to be more stable than Dollars alone, but doesn't solve the problem of fiat money (those 4 are all fiat) which is always going to be a problem in the long run.

Note that the latest G20 meeting expanded the use of SDRs dramatically with the US providing a truckload of 'cash' to that end.

[Dinner]

I'm putting all my money in sea shells and obsidian arrow heads. It worked for the Native Americans.

[Alinestra Covelia]

Oerdin, consider putting your money into hacksilver. Not only is it inherently valuable metal, but you literally cut it off to pay for stuff. It's like all the medieval cut-and-carry coolness but without the fungibility problems of barter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacksilver