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by Pointedstick
Fri Apr 27, 2012 5:30 pm
Forum: Permanent Portfolio Discussion
Topic: Article: Europe's pain is coming America's way
Replies: 252
Views: 72293

Re: Article: Europe's pain is coming America's way

Pointed, I like most of that in theory, but don't you see this as having SOME inherantly unstable elements?  Let's say I miss a loan payment on a car, and when some guy comes to take back the car, I shoot him for trying to steal my property?  Where does it go from there? What's preventing you (or a...
by Pointedstick
Fri Apr 27, 2012 3:05 pm
Forum: Permanent Portfolio Discussion
Topic: Article: Europe's pain is coming America's way
Replies: 252
Views: 72293

Re: Article: Europe's pain is coming America's way

MT, And who enforces the contract to agree to binding arbitration?  What if I were to just give them the finger, or they to me, when the dispute comes up?  It's all tied together by the threat of force by gov't at some point. It certainly is today but it doesn't have to be, that's the key. Even now...
by Pointedstick
Fri Apr 27, 2012 12:56 pm
Forum: Permanent Portfolio Discussion
Topic: Article: Europe's pain is coming America's way
Replies: 252
Views: 72293

Re: Article: Europe's pain is coming America's way

As MT points out, the idea of trusting a monopolistic property expropriator to protect property contracts among its citizens is sort of a laughable concept IMHO. Especially when it permits no other entity to protect people from it should its decisions or actions be deleterious. Can you really trust...
by Pointedstick
Fri Apr 27, 2012 10:57 am
Forum: Permanent Portfolio Discussion
Topic: Article: Europe's pain is coming America's way
Replies: 252
Views: 72293

Re: Article: Europe's pain is coming America's way

I'll add that I think if we had a bunch of MMRists in government that realized how important production was to the value of a currency (and the prosperity of a country), but also saw where government can add value to the private sector, we'd be in a much better place than having any Austrian "cut e...
by Pointedstick
Fri Apr 27, 2012 1:36 am
Forum: Permanent Portfolio Discussion
Topic: Article: Europe's pain is coming America's way
Replies: 252
Views: 72293

Re: Article: Europe's pain is coming America's way

I think the question is whether you have a productive underlying economy that can dampen the errors that are going to occur within an MMR-type arrangement. The U.S. has an extraordinarily productive economy, as does Japan, and thus MMR not destroyed these economies.  In other economies where MMR is...
by Pointedstick
Thu Apr 26, 2012 8:41 pm
Forum: Permanent Portfolio Discussion
Topic: Article: Europe's pain is coming America's way
Replies: 252
Views: 72293

Re: Article: Europe's pain is coming America's way

as the federal government doesn't dramatically stray from the "public good" by favoring either itself or specific private interests. At this point in human evolution should it not be considered settled science that governments will always stray from the "public good" by favoring either itself or sp...
by Pointedstick
Thu Apr 26, 2012 7:33 pm
Forum: Permanent Portfolio Discussion
Topic: Article: Europe's pain is coming America's way
Replies: 252
Views: 72293

Re: Article: Europe's pain is coming America's way

Over the course of the last three weeks, I read this whole thread, as well as most of the PragCap links. I have to say, MMR has totally rocked my world. I considered myself an Austrian before; now I'm not so sure. It's a little disconcerting to have your entire worldview basically melted into slag r...
by Pointedstick
Wed Apr 18, 2012 5:10 pm
Forum: Permanent Portfolio Discussion
Topic: N00b with questions about starting a PP
Replies: 18
Views: 9485

Re: N00b with questions about starting a PP

cabronjames, I'm pretty young (24) and I'm planning to retire before I'm 60, so it dawned on me recently that all the money in my Roth IRA and 401k are inaccessible from the perspective of living off investments prior to the governmentally-defined "retirement age". So I'm starting a PP with the expe...
by Pointedstick
Wed Apr 18, 2012 12:47 pm
Forum: Permanent Portfolio Discussion
Topic: N00b with questions about starting a PP
Replies: 18
Views: 9485

Re: N00b with questions about starting a PP

Thanks everyone. I guess I wasn't considering the part where you can buy and sell the bonds themselves! Given that I fall into the category of "some who are not used to bond desks", would y'all recommend starting with TLT, or just biting the bullet and buying the bonds themselves? I already have a v...
by Pointedstick
Wed Apr 18, 2012 10:52 am
Forum: Permanent Portfolio Discussion
Topic: N00b with questions about starting a PP
Replies: 18
Views: 9485

Re: N00b with questions about starting a PP

It sounds like a good idea.  It is actually safer than the high yield savings account you have, if you use T-bills.  What makes T-bills safer than a savings account? The savings account is FDIC-insured, and if the FDIC were to go broke, that's the sort of situation where I wouldn't expect a T-bill ...
by Pointedstick
Wed Apr 18, 2012 12:15 am
Forum: Permanent Portfolio Discussion
Topic: N00b with questions about starting a PP
Replies: 18
Views: 9485

Re: N00b with questions about starting a PP

thanks for the advice, everyone! I would buy T-bills through the bond window at either Vanguard or TDA.  If you don't want to do that, something like SHV is good.  I would not use SHY until I had a pretty big chunk of change saved in very short term US government debt.  I would definitely not use a ...
by Pointedstick
Tue Apr 17, 2012 9:50 pm
Forum: Permanent Portfolio Discussion
Topic: N00b with questions about starting a PP
Replies: 18
Views: 9485

N00b with questions about starting a PP

Hello all! I'm getting ready to start my PP, and I've got a few questions for the collective wisdom of the community. 1. Vanguard or TDA? Both will offer free trades on the stock and bond ETF components, but I'm leaning toward TDA because TLT offers a dividend, while none of vanguard's bond ETFs do....