Economy

If you have not yet read Part I, available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.

Part II – Positioning Yourself for the Devolution of the Euro

One of the clichés of investing is, “There is no bad investment; there is only bad timing.” While we all know there are indeed bad investments, the point about timing is still valid: In certain situations, timing is the difference between a good and bad investment.

The European crisis may well be just such a situation. Until the structural imbalances are truly resolved and not simply papered over for purposes of perception management, then investments denominated in euros will remain at risk.

If the systemic flaws are not resolved, a risky investment (i.e., assets held in euros) could become a disastrous one. If the imbalances are eventually addressed on a structural level, assets denominated in euros or the follow-on currencies may become relatively attractive.

For investors, the key characteristic of the Eurozone crisis is its unpredictability. Anyone claiming there is “zero probability” of a Eurozone breakup is indulging in false precision. Nobody knows what will happen, as the E.U. and the euro are unique experiments without easy historical precedents. All that can be said with any certainty is that toothless reforms, empty compromises, and ballooning bailouts cannot fix structural flaws, and those are essentially all that’s been offered to date.

Despite the unpredictability of the Eurozone’s debt and currency crises, we can sketch out one potential timeline which would suggest an evolving, flexible investment strategy.

If you have not yet read Part I, available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.

Part II – Why Commodities are the New Safe Haven

Condition #3: Preference To Hold Money Persists

What does one do with Money of Zero Maturity (MZM)? Well, you can save it in a money market fund, keep it at your bank, or you can spend it. The rate at which it is being spent, relative to the economy, is measured in terms of its velocity. 

The faster people are spending the same money chasing a relatively fixed amount of goods and services, the higher the rate of inflation goes. The mental image you should have here is someone in Germany in the 1920’s being paid with a wheelbarrow full of cash that they push as quickly as they can to the nearest store (literal veloicty of money, as it were).

Right now, the velocity of MZM is near its historic lows (only recently set in 2009), keeping inflationary pressures relatively low — for the time being.