I've been reading around the topic for a while. One thing that's definite: the silver market has been manipulated. Or at least spoofing by JPMorgan has been captured and successfully prosecuted and a US$1billion fine has been paid.
So while that's been exposed the silver price hasn't been unleashed to fly sky high. Not really. Does this mean that what they got caught doing is just the tip of the iceberg and they're carrying on as per usual? Impossible to say. But some sources say it's still unregulated. But then others say no...
(that's the k i t c o site) Overall the claims that gold has been manipulated are just as confusing.
All that's obvious is that fertile land near a water source and close to infrastructure is a good thing. I've also looked at housing construction and prefabrication. It seems prefab houses are not better constructed or necessarily cheaper. The place I'm in now is built with hardwood in the 1950s and it's solid as a rock. Tiles are not those horrible concrete ones, but actual
I'm wary of new builds with extreme weather, they're built so shabbily with pine. Pine! They suffer roof lift-off in the wind.
It's bringing me to the idea of a block of land in the country and a steel-framed house that's prefab to a point. Sub contracting allows you to save money on construction while having control over the materials and design. I look at most house designs and I cannot stand them. Huge footprints with oversized houses, too much open plan, cathedral ceilings, they're a nightmare in winter to heat. People wonder why they've got $1k per quarter on heating. I mean seriously? Also you have a huge house but nowhere people can do separate activities. Or you get the tiny houses or horrible little units with no storage. I think housing design has largely gone backwards as developers get meaner.
So I will probably be building. I also think it's worthwhile t have a bolthole in the city, so I will try to pick up one of those cheap student digs for next to nothing when distress sales start. Cities will come back and we will beat Covid-19.
Everything else I'm not terribly sure of.
I have some gold miners but physical gold just feels like I'm going into the weirdo category. Maybe pink diamonds? LOL. But no. Physical gold feels sensible as you say, with inflation a likely problem and the RBA is basically soothing us to expect that it won't be their only priority. What the heck does that mean? It sounds like they're making way for a situation that may well involve rampant inflation.
I read a book on the collapse of the Weimar Republic a few years back. It was savage.
