Brits—More Likely to Save You than Atlas
The comments below are an edited and abridged synopsis of an article by Egon von Greyerz
Global debt of $250 trillion cannot be serviced or repaid. More likely, it will continue to grow exponentially until the world financial system collapses under the weight of the debt, plus unfunded pension and medical liabilities of at least $250 trillion, plus derivatives of $1.5 quadrillion, for a total of over $2 quadrillion.
No one can save the world, but maybe Atlas could have. He led the Titans in the war against the gods. When the Titans lost, Zeus punished Atlas by making him hold the celestial sphere on his shoulders until the end of time. Without Atlas protecting the earth from collapsing under its debt burden of quadrillions of dollars, how can we survive the coming debt implosion?
The problem is even worse, because no one sees the need for supporting the world’s financial system. Instead, debts and liabilities in the trillions are added every month. Investors continue to buy overvalued stocks and property, as well as worthless bonds. Governments can’t even make ends meet in good times with low to negative interest rates. How can we believe that the world can survive when hard times hit, with escalating deficits and rates in the teens—or higher.
Von Greyerz discusses: Buy high and sell low; a wedding gift; history will rhyme again; the UK is in a mess; gold in pounds is going to new highs; gold in Swedish kroner is at an all-time high; gold in US dollars will soon break the Maginot Line; and the Dow made a triple top and is now ready to crash.
In closing, he writes: “So we could now be on the verge of a major downturn in stocks and a resumption of the gold bull market. Whether these trends start now or slightly later, makes no difference to the longer trends of collapsing stocks and surging precious metals.”
“But what is more important is that global risk is now at all time historical highs. In order to avoid a total destruction of asset values, investors must now focus on wealth preservation and, in particular, physical gold.”