252 THE BiG DROP
When I say cash, I mean the highest quality instruments
you can get. For a US investor, that would be US Treasury bills
or maybe kind of one-year notes. There are foreign equiva-
lents. Basically, find treasury debt in your own currency. That’s
the lowest risk, I think. But I don’t consider money market
funds or bank CDs to be cash in this sense.19) You recommend physical metals as well as long
Treasury bond funds. Can both of these deliver at the
same time?
The answer is no, they can’t both deliver at the same time.
That’s exactly the point. I think people who say they know
exactly what’s going to happen don’t really know what they’re
talking about. We could have inflation for a whole bunch of
reasons. We could have deflation for a whole bunch of rea-
sons. The smart investor has a little bit of protection in case
of either. And by the way, the best example of that is Warren
Buffet. Buffett is buying railroads, transportation assets, oil
and natural gas, which are all hard assets. He also has $55
billion in cash. That way if things do crash, you have the cash
to scoop up the bargains.20) Do you see the G20 moving to 100% electronic cur-
rency so they can charge negative interest rates on deposits?
Yes, it’s out there. Ken Rogoff and Larry Summers have
mentioned it. The G20 doesn’t do anything quickly, but the
move towards a cashless society, which basically means you’re
trapped in the banking system and they can impose negative
rates, is just a way to steal your money.
That trend is pretty well underway. It’s another reason to
have physical gold — because it’s non-digital.21) The dialogue between Russia and the U.S. has bro-
ken down. Has the economy deteriorated so much that
the U.S. will opt for war, as it has in past depressions?