Monday, October 13, 2008

Iceland going through Alpha Strategy Blues in currency meltdown

Iceland always seemed like a wonderful place tucked into the middle of the N Atlantic, the people are friendly and until recently, life was cheap.

With an isolated location, and little food production capacity, our Icelandic Neighbors are no confronting empty store shelves and little food to purchase with a no worthless currency.

Alpha Strategy is relatively cheap to pursue while times are good, a family of four needs 3 meals a day, 7 days a week for at least 365 days, or 4,300 meals at about 2 pds of food per meal, give or take, or 8,000 pds of food or 160 bags of Beans and Corn or what have you.

Depending on how much your family consumes and how much food can be acquired via fishing or hunting or domestic production....

Icelanders, whose per capita gross domestic product is the fifth highest in the world, according to the United Nations 2007/2008 Human Development Index, will have to tighten their belts.

Shoppers are paying more for the goods they do get. The cost of fruits and vegetables, nearly all of which are imported, have gone up about 50 percent in recent months, said Steinunn Kristinsdottir, a 33-year-old Reykjavik resident who was leaving the Bonus store with her cart full.

``This situation really has been a bit troubling for people,'' she said. ``They don't know what's going to happen.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Stock market crash was forseeable, now comes Inflation

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/08/inflation.banking



This is the "best case scenario"


Monetary authorities around the world are now focused on trying to ensure that we avoid the fate of the United States in the Great Depression of the 1930s, when output fell by over 30%. Instead, their hope is that the recession to come is more like the early 1970s, when western economies shrank by 5% to 10%. Painful but not catastrophic.

One of the benefits of the venerable strategy of stockpiling is such inflation is avoided, by buying in quantity now, the Alpha Strategist will miss the pain of losing 10 dollars on every 100 dollars.

The real irony of this is, people who are "savers" the few and far between people who put their money in the bank, are about to lose their shirts from both inflation driven loss of purchasing power AND the increase in Capital Gains taxes.

Truly, inflation is a Govt best friend, and "Joe or Jane Average" worst enemy.

And what is the largest tidal wave to hit, Seniors on fixed Social Security incomes will not have their benefits increased 10%, try 4% maximum, literally, Seniors and the Retired will face the hawk and buzzard for a couple of years.

Buy, Buy Now, Buy in Bulk, Avoid all of this by using the Alpha Strategy.