It's Getting Ugly: Economist Says Hoard Gold & Scotch Respected economist John Williams, editor of ShadowStats.com, a popular website that tracks real inflation figures, is advising that people hoard physical gold as well as food items in bulk so that they have some means with which to barter as the economic crisis turns ugly. "Three or four years into the future I think we could be in a hyperinflation, within the current year you're going to see much higher inflation than most people are looking at," Williams told MarketWatch. Williams said that his definition of hyperinflation would be a situation in which a $100 dollar bill would become more functional as a piece of toilet paper than a store of value. "This is a time when you want to preserve your wealth and assets because inflation will knock the value out of it," he added, advising that people buy physical gold and assets other than the U.S. dollar. "Then when the hyperinflation hits you'll see disruption of normal commerce, you won't have enough $100 dollar bills to buy what you want," said Williams, adding that items to barter with, such as a bottle of scotch, would be more valuable than actual cash, even in large quantities. Williams said that such items should be procured now in bulk so people had some means with which to barter and get them through rough times. At least as far back as April 2008, six months before the collapse of Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, Williams predicted that the world economy was entering a phase of "hyperinflationary depression" that would peak in 2010. In a hyperinflation special report, Williams said that the U.S. was on an irreversible course of "financial armageddon" that would likely lead to "extreme political change and/or civil unrest". Top trends forecaster Gerald Celente has echoed Williams' advice, remarking recently that putting food on the table will become a primary concern over buying gifts at Christmas.
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