The U.S. Financial System Is Broken

I’ve been reading Mike “Mish” Shedlock’s economic commentary for a while now. This comment struck me as something that would be very funny if things weren’t so serious:

If you were by any chance wondering why mortgage rates were not following the Fed’s slash and burn policy of lower rates, the…short answer is rising default risk.

But let’s not be too gloomy here.

Other than overleverage, bad debts, sinking home prices, no jobs, shrinking wages, cash strapped US consumers, rising oil prices, a sinking US dollar, $500 trillion in derivatives not marked to market, rampant overcapacity, underfunded pension plans, looming boomer retirements, no funding for Medicaid, no funding for Medicare, and no Social Security trust fund, everything is just fine.

The fact that (I believe) we’re heading into a recession has made me reconsider many of my investment strategies. I know that in the very long-run, the market will do well. But why take the hit of staying in the market during a stock market crash if you know one is coming?

There aren’t many types of investments that do well in a recession. I believe silver will be one of them (up over 33% year-to-date). Others include CDs and Treasuries.

I’m also going to be saving up as much cash as I can, for two reasons:

1. In case I lose my job, and
2. To be able to buy investments for cheap when things are really bad.

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