Homestead mailing list

["Melody O." <melody AT crecon.com>]

At 11:10 AM 2/4/05 -0700, you wrote:
My view is that the SS fund excess is invested 
>in government securities, the most dependably reliable investment in the 
>world. 

I agree that the US government investments *used to be* the most dependably
reliable investments in the world, but I'm not sure that the government is
the same as it once was.  

For instance, I have heard that Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, two of the
richest men in America, are preparing for the fall of the Dollar, and they
are trading in their Dollars for Euros.  

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=atQjxQiQeANA&refer=us
{{{Bill Gates, whose net worth of $46.6 billion (R276 billion) makes him
the world's richest person, is betting against the dollar.

"I'm short the dollar," Gates, the chairman of Microsoft, said at the World
Economic Forum.

Gates's concern that widening US budget and trade deficits are undermining
the dollar was echoed in Davos by policy makers including European Central
Bank (ECB) president Jean-Claude Trichet and German Chancellor Gerhard
Schröder.  

The trade deficit swelled to a record $609.3 billion last year and US
government debt rose 8.7 percent to $7.62 trillion in the past 12 months. 

"It is a bit scary," Gates said. "We're in uncharted territory when the
world's reserve currency has so much outstanding debt."

Trichet repeated the ECB's concern over the dollar's drop to record lows
against the euro.}}} 


http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/12/27/100204.shtml
{{He remains bearish on the dollar even now.

Recently Buffett spoke with Forbes, who described him as full of “doom and
gloom” for the dollar.

For one thing Buffett fears the $10 trillion of the U.S. economy owned by
foreigners. 

As they continue to exit the dollar, it could wreak havoc. “If lots of
people try to leave the market, we’ll have chaos because they won’t get
through the door,” Buffett told Forbes.

Buffett believes that a the dollar fall off “could cause major disruptions
in financial markets.”

Today, Buffett continues his strong position in the euro, sterling and six
other currencies.

The Federal Reserve has continued to increase interest rates – a
conventional method of boosting the value of dollar. But Buffett is not
sure this will work, and says the move simply will “put off the day of
reckoning.”

What worries Buffett is the huge deficits being run up by the federal
government, adding to the huge existing debt load.

Buffett tells Forbes he may end up owning currencies “for years and years”
- and worries U.S. politicians will fix the deficit problem using inflation.}}

>If the U.S. government goes bankrupt, all bets are off except your 
>garden and woodlot. 

Yep, which makes a year supply of food and other needs a smart idea.  If
anyone is interested in seeing exactly how much food they and their family
would need to store for a year, including the best way to store the food,
you can look here:
http://www.providentliving.org/channel/1,11677,1706-1,00.htm
Because in the end, the only person you can trust to take care of you is you.

Best wishes,
Melody