Using Inflation To Create Wealth


Those who learn from history, have the ability to PROFIT from it.So here is some history:

wealthymatters.comInflations start out slowly.Governments will not openly admit to debasing the currency. They will cite other reasons for why inflation is going up. In Weimar Germany,for example, government officials and those within the finance community blamed their trade partners and foreigners for the Reichsmark depreciating.  German writers and politicians at the time had said that “paper inflation was not the cause or consequence of the external depreciation of the Reichsmark.  The depreciation of the Mark was held completely independent of the condition of paper circulation between 1921 and 1923″ – even though money in circulation went up 23 times within 2 years !  Prices of imported goods back then – denominated in US dollars – went up 344 times.  The official view from within the government of the Weimar Republic – the chancellor, the head of finance, the head of the Reichsbank – was to blame it on the excessive burdens thrust on the German people with war reparations, the violent policy adopted by France (when France invaded and took over an entire industrial section of Germany), and they also blamed it on increases on the price of imported goods.Conversely, the view held by those outside of Germany was that the depreciation of the Reichsmark was due to the government’s huge budget deficits, which required Germany to continuously print paper money. I guess people around the world will recognize the current day parallels to this scene from history.Quite a few governments are doing something like this today.  Read more of this post

Inflation and the Velocity of Money – Lesson from the Weimar Republic


wealthymatters.comInflation in the beginning is like a drug, sort of a good feeling in the economy to start with because there are more jobs, more goods, house values are increasing, the stock market rises, etc.  It isn’t until the money velocity accelerates that you begin to feel that something is wrong.  And that’s when everybody begins running faster and faster just to keep up.

Velocity of money is the turnover of money in the economy.  As you start printing more money the depreciation of a currency begins, more money goes into circulation, but not all of it gets turned over very rapidly.  Some of it goes into foreign hands, like when Germany had to buy imported goods for war materials.  Also, some people may decide to hold onto the excess currency like they did during the war, hoarding cash which also kept the money velocity low (in the beginning stages).  So even though the supply of money was increasing in the economy and along with it the cost of goods and services, Germans were savers, saving the marks that they got which kept this increasingly large quantity of money moving slow, therefore building up the inevitable effects of inflation but delaying the impact. Read more of this post

Lessons From The Weimar Republic


wealthymatters.comInflation causes a lot of change which can impoverish the majority but at the same time provide  incredible opportunity for creating wealth for those who are educated and informed.So why not read the story below and benefit a little?

July 24, 1914 – The depreciation of Germany’s currency, the Reichsmark, began when the Reichsbank (Germany’s central bank) suspended gold convertibility on the Reichsmark, meaning you could no longer trade in your Reichsmarks for actual gold. From that point forward there was no limitation to the amount of money the Reichsbank could then create (money backed by nothing, basically just printed out of thin air and placed into the system thereby reducing the value of the existing currency, ie, inflation). Read more of this post

The Yield Curve


The yield curve is a graph that plots the yields of similar-quality debt instruments against their maturities, ranging from shortest to longest. The yield curve is is also known as the term structure of interest rates. As yield curve shows the various yields that are currently being offered on debt instruments of different maturities it helps investors quickly compare the yields offered by short-term, medium-term and long-term debt instruments.

The yield curve can take three primary shapes. If short-term yields are lower than long-term yields i.e.the line is sloping upwards, then the curve is referred to a positive (or “normal”) yield curve. Below you’ll find an example of a normal yield curve.
 

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Breaking a Fixed Deposit


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Breaking a FD means pre-mature withdrawal of your money locked in a FD i.e. taking out the money before the term of the FD is over.When you break a FD, banks don’t give you the rate of interest at which you booked the FD ; instead you get the rate applicable for the duration for which you actually kept the money with the bank.For example if you made a FD for 4 years, at an interest rate of 8% and now you wish to break it after 2 years ,you would get the rate applicable to a 2 year FD prevailing at the time when you had booked your FD, and not the 8% which is noted in your FD certificate.So, if the rate for a 2 years FD was 7.25% when you had booked your 4 year FD, you would only get an interest of 7.25% per annum for the 2 years you would have actually kept the money with the bank.In addition there is often a penalty to be paid,comm0nly a further 1% deduction.Some banks do waive off this penalty if the liquidation or premature withdrawal of the FD is due to some emergency. But the word “emergency” is not well defined and this waiver is given on a case-to-case basis.Some banks also waive off the penalty if you reinvest the withdrawn amount with the bank. Some banks provide this waive off only if the new FD is kept for a period higher than the remaining period of the original FD.So there is some leeway to negotiate to avoid paying a penalty while attempting to break a fixed deposit. Read more of this post