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Comment by mupuff1234 | Hacker News Reader

Any good hedges against a possible downfall of USD?

No. I asked my RIA, and he said that scenario would destroy the world economy but also it is highly improbable (he never says "impossible", which is what I like about him). There's no place to hide if the USD craters a-la reddit-like doomsdaying (not even non-US funds).

EDIT: My speculation, not my RIA's: If the global economy wasn't backed by USD, I would recommend foreign funds/ETFs, but everything is interconnected with the US economy. Maybe in 50 years if the global economy moves to anohter currency, but what is there? sterling? renminbi? rubles? rupees? there's nothing.

Yeah its like when people say they are stockpiling gold in case of some form of economic apocalypse.

I'm not sure what good gold would do you if people start physically fighting each other for food and water.

Because there are a lot of scenarios between total apocalypse and status quo. The USD may collapse partially compared to other currencies and common assets like BTC, gold, silver without me having to defend my home from raiders and trading whiskey for ammunition.

What is an example where gold temporarily replaced a country's currency and it did't go full mad-max? I don't think you have any evidence to back up your claims, but I can just point to COVID and toilet paper to show how slippery the slope can be (replace toilet paper with "food" and play that out in your head). I didn't even mention Zimbabwe (which more closely resembles the Trump regimes blatant corruption) where wheelbarrows of bills couldn't buy bread.

I was given some gold as a gift and tried to sell it, they take a cut off the top and there are no laws regulating how much a coin shop can charge for exchanging (unlike securities). People don't realize it is easy to buy gold, but a LOT harder to sell it. Especially if there is no provenance like an ingot with a hologram vs. a golden eagle. But like a lower poster says, there is a lot in between, but do you remember COVID and how insane people went over toilet paper? To quote william burroughs: "Man is a bad animal".

Beans, boots, and bullets. You can't eat gold.

Little Dieter is that you? ;) (Referring to the excellent Herzog film)

RAM modules.

(Joking, don't ever take my financial advice on anything!)

Probably not. But if I had to hedge for that I would consider property and gold.

Pick any forex pair of your liking against USD?

Literally anything.

TIPS. Stocks. Real estate. Cans of beans.

Inflation means purchasing power going down. There are likely knock-on effects stemming from precisely why the dollar weakens. But the general treatment to a declining asset is to sell it. For dollars, that means consuming and investing.

I see you took a downvote. I'm not sure why. I think it's a reasonable question to be asking oneself generally, though perhaps the way you've asked it implies catastrophic near-term collapse, which I don't think is likely.

This is not financial advice.

I made a decision earlier this year to rebalance my portfolio toward more of a 50/50 split with US equities and international equities. Whatever you think of the current political situation in the US, I don't think it can be ignored that the US has shown itself to be an unreliable partner. I believe there will be real, long-term consequences to this. Believe me when I say that given the history of US markets, it brings me no pleasure to bet against them.

ex-US index funds.

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