mailbag

Reader 'T' and I have swapped a few mails this morning and he's given me permission to publish the following mail he sent as part of the exchange.

It's a salutory reminder. A smart, financially literate guy such as 'T' who is making a positive difference to his net worth by being successful and trading metals stocks can see that by being inside the dollarzone, all he's really doing is running to stand still. So what about the vast majority of citizens that aren't as market savvy as 'T'?

I get the feeling that what they've been through in the last 18 months or so may be just the tip of the iceberg. Here's 'T's mail:

You're lucky you don't have to figure out what to do with your cash, with our default being USD that means we are at risk even when we're trying to be conservative. Even our savings "cushion" doesn't give us the security it should because it erodes every week. No wonder the markets are levitating, who wants to park cash in USD? But I have to say while it's a fun intellectual event it sucks to live in the country whose currency is going down the shitter. My wife's money is kept all in cash (and some physical gold) because I didn't want to be risky with it, but it turns out she is much worse off. That's what the country gets for abusing its reserve currency, but there are lots of individuals (like her) who only acted responsibly and never spent more than they had (or anywhere close to what they had), and it looks like they are going to be the biggest losers.

Sorry, just a rant. Times are getting more and more "interesting" in the Chinese fashion.