These Warning Signs Say There’s Trouble Ahead for Our Money
Andy Snyder|March 3, 2021
All it takes is a sign.
So often the difference between the right decision and the wrong decision is a single piece of information.
The path to riches is no exception.
We’ve all heard the cliché about the fork in the road. Let’s say one path leads to a land of trolls and ugliness. The other heads straight to Eden.
Without a sign, the choice is tough. It’s a 50-50 shot.
But what if some forward-thinking fella hikes back out of the valley, scribbles on a board and pounds a stake into the ground? “Trouble that way,” the sign reads as it points to the path no man should travel.
It’s that simple. With a bit of information, there’s no reason anyone should suffer in the land of trolls.
Today… we don’t get just one sign… We get many.
Something is wrong.
And it has everything to do with our money.
Banks in Trouble
Something is not right when, we learn from Germany this week, banks are turning customers away. As the costs of perverse negative rates add up for banks that must store cash with central authorities, depositors are being told to take their money elsewhere. Banks can’t afford their business.
Big customers – those with around $100,000 in deposits or more – are allowed in. But they’re being charged 0.5% annually to store their money in the system.
With zero-percent mortgages hitting the scene, it now pays more to borrow cash than to safely squirrel it away.
Crazy.
It’s a bright, flashing sign that means we must turn around. The path we are on is the wrong one.
But the oddities don’t exist just in the banking world.
They’re out here in the real world too.
Going Hungry
We had a chat with a good friend recently. He’s a full-time farmer, with quite a hay business. He makes a living feeding other people’s animals.
He’s seen firsthand how costs are soaring.
“I think it’s going to be expensive for many farmers to feed unless they stored grain and possibly can make their own feed. It’s an interesting dilemma.”
It’s not good news… especially if you need to eat to stay alive.
It means food prices will rise.
The CEO at Kraft Heinz (KHC) warned in late February that inflation is everywhere in the agribusiness. He said to expect to see price hikes from his company and its competitors.
It’s another sign of trouble.
Where food prices go… so does everything else.
There’s a reason everyone talks about needing “a wheelbarrow full of cash for a loaf of bread.” Nobody cares if the price of a deck of cards soars. But food, oh my, that’s where it hurts.
“People will have to get used to paying more for food,” said Sylvain Charlebois, director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University in Canada. “It’s only going to get worse.”
The Dopes in Charge
But here’s where we really get concerned.
It’s signs like these…
This half-cocked tweet comes from the man in charge of the Minneapolis branch of the Federal Reserve. Like his brethren in Washington, his answer to what ails us doesn’t waiver.
Just throw more cash at the problem.
The Twitter world – not known for its economic sensibilities – largely ignored the comment. Tweeting dogs get more attention. But a few think-for-yourselfers caught on…
Now that’d be a public service.
Here’s another…
Clearly, lots of signs tell us we’re on the path to trouble. But what are we to do? How do we turn around and get on the right trail?
We’ll skip any political talk. We’re well past the point of turning that mess around.
As individuals, though, there are plenty of things to do.
Economic Literacy
The first… read the signs.
Know that if you’re following the masses, if you’re not disagreeing with the headlines or if you simply feel there is something wrong… stop. Stop what you’re doing and turn around.
We’ve written plenty about the right things to do.
Stocks, like it or not, are going to the moon. Our Dow 100K theory isn’t based on scenes of a rosy recovery where factories are turning out widgets to raving customers. No, it’s based on monetary manipulation and an economy chock-full of fake money. Stock markets have no choice but to fill up like a balloon.
Buy shares of the companies that can take advantage of it in a fundamental way. We’ve been raving about buyback stocks for years. They’re leading the charge.
Buy real estate. You know we are.
Rising food prices are great for farm prices. Isn’t that right, Mr. Gates? He’s America’s top know-it-all and, now, its largest farm owner.
Buy crypto.
Not only do some tokens offer an alternative to the broken system… but others are rising up as a threat to reshape not just the financial system but also the economy as a whole. If you don’t know what we mean, spend a week truly studying what some tokens are doing.
You’ll be hooked.
Better yet… buy a few and see the action firsthand.
We don’t have to pick a path and follow it blindly. The signs are there. They’re big and bright.
Pick the right one.
P.S. The date I’ve been talking about for months is just around the corner. March 17 is just two weeks away. It’s when the folks at the Fed could pull off the biggest shock to our monetary system since the “gold shock” in 1971. Click here to learn more about the five steps to take right away.
What signs do you see that we’re headed down the wrong path? Share your thoughts at mailbag@manwardpress.com.
Andy Snyder
Andy Snyder is an American author, investor and serial entrepreneur. He cut his teeth at an esteemed financial firm with nearly $100 billion in assets under management. Andy and his ideas have been featured on Fox News, on countless radio stations, and in numerous print and online outlets. He’s been a keynote speaker and panelist at events all over the world, from four-star ballrooms to Capitol hearing rooms.
