CALIFORNIA (Commodity Online): Investors can protect their wealth in an inflationary scenario by pulling more money into gold and not dollars, according to veteran precious metals expert Barry Stuppler of Stuppler & Company.
He cautions we will see "serious global inflation with a high likelihood of hyperinflation within the United States." Stuppler has researched and authored "Is Hyperinflation the US Government's Only Way Out?," a 30-page analysis of economic, historic and social factors. He concludes: "If your assets are stored primarily in US dollars, you need to act now to protect your family, wealth and future." He says many financial planners he works with are recommending 20 to 25 percent of financial capital be placed in precious metals, such as gold, and he is suggesting at least a minimum of 35 percent.
Stuppler is President of the California Coin & Bullion Merchants Association, Chairman of the Gold and Silver Political Action Committee, a co-founder and current Board Member of the Industry Council for Tangible Assets, a Board Member of the Professional Numismatists Guild and the Immediate Past President of the American Numismatic Association.
This past May he issued his initial 24-page analysis. "Since then, the situation has not improved, and in many ways the US and world economic problems have worsened, and I've now updated and expanded the analysis to include new developments in the worsening European financial crisis. I believe our country will suffer hyperinflation soon," said Stuppler.
In the just-published latest analysis Stuppler also looks at the possibilities of the federal government confiscating citizens' gold as it did under President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and again under President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression. He believes that if the U.S. government again wants citizens to turn in their gold that rare coins again would be exempt as they were under the 1933 executive order issued by Roosevelt.
One way to survive and even profit from hyperinflation is with ownership of gold coins dated before 1934 with numismatic value. If the US returns to a gold standard it would lead to a freeze on the value of gold bullion coins as the government would set an official price at which we would buy or sell gold. "Gold coins with a numismatic value could continue to appreciate in price, and if the government repeats the type of gold confiscation we faced in 1933 then investment-quality gold coins would continue to be legal and freely traded -- the only game in town," he states.
The International Accounting Standards Board defines hyperinflation as "a cumulative inflation rate over three years approaching 100 percent (26 percent per annum compounded for three years in a row)."
