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I read the above 10 or so comments with great interest, thanks for sharing.
My guess is that Armstrong is at least partly right about few assets missing a downturn in prices. I would include crypto in that category, BTC is vulnerable to a price crash if the "rest" of everything cracks...
The two ways to save your bacon under almost any scenario are:
1) Get diversified. Maybe everything will go down, but more likely some things will not. Or not as much (so relative winners). Gold, CA$H and some (small) holdings of BTC are excellent diversifications that many people do not have much of.
2) GTFO of debt! In hyperinflation, debtors MAY be winners, depending on how the debts are structured (some debts inflate with inflation). While hyperinflation may (probably) happen along the way, it may happen AFTER a deflation, when many debtors will have laready LOST everything, so not eligible...
Let me add a 3rd point. In times like these, if you have some cash on the side, you can go for a nice piece of land. With about $20K-$50K you can diversify to what I'd call the best "coin" out there (after BTC). Land won't ever betray you and if it's a fruitful one, then it can -literally- save your bacon. Many opportunities on medium to large territories exists right now in (relatively remote) places like Spain, Italy Greece. You *really* don't want to live in a place like NY or London if this happens.
I think that *this* is the right time to buy some land and start preparing for the worse case scenario.
We've talked about buying land. I think it's also important to talk about the risk of having your wealth in such a public, immovable asset. If governments are hungry for tax revenues, then owning property with lots of equity in it might be a big bullseye on your head.
The deflation comes from the rise in the cost of government, in addition to the collapse in leverage. As governments with power turn to extracting more from the people, rather than from the weak government, you get massive deflation and never hyperinflation. As was the case with the revolutionary new government in Germany during the 1920s. Their own power leads them down the path of suicide. Of course, that can migrate to full economic totalitarianism akin to communism. Whether you technically own your home and are taxed twice its value, or if the state owns it and allows you to live there, is just a technical point. The bottom-line is both are deflationary – not inflationary.
So you might buy a house for $12,000 and the government ends up taxing you $12,000 or $24,000 every year.
