The Hard Asset Boom

 

There has been a hard asset boom going on globally for a few years now.  But during the last several months this boom has gone into overdrive.

Coins, Medals, Comic Books, Sports cards, Old Master Paintings, Classic Cars, Historical Documents, Wines, Chinese Art Objects... I'm sure I'm missing many things.

The reasons are obvious.  All the central banks are involved in QE Forever.  There's always talk of tapering, normalization (Ha ha ha) and other such nonsense.  Small gestures might be made in these directions from time to time.  They are impossible in a global financial system drowning in debt because debt is tremendously DEFLATIONARY.  Any move towards normalization (a word with no real meaning) is impossible as nobody wants to see what happens when the deflation takes hold.

The other reason for the Hard Asset Boom is the massive inequality of wealth.  The global economic system is one where the world's Central Banks create money and then give it for free to the biggest corporations and Hedge Funds who then buy up everything with the Free Money.  This is socialism for the Rich on a massive and unprecedented scale.  

So what can these immensely rich people do with all this Cash?  Put it into risky paper assets?  Well, that game has been run up into the stratosphere over the last 50 years.  Leave that to the Reddit kids.

No, smart money is converting itself into Real Things so that when the game collapses they will be in possession of stuff that will hold its value.

And the best of that stuff if very finite.  There are only so many Gem State Kroisos staters in the world  Like 5.  There are only so many Da VInci paintings for sale.   There are only so many Honus Wagner baseball cards.  There are only so many Aston Martins driven in the first James Bond movie.  There are only so many Gutenberg Bibles.

You get the idea.  Or you should.  Because the very wealthy got the idea  a while ago.

But what do you do if you can't afford a Gutenberg bible.  Well, a first edition of For whom the Bell Tolls isn't a bad idea.  There are still many Hard Assets that are affordable.  Find one you like.  And buy it.