The investment advice is highly questionable, not based on facts, and seems to be written from a purely emotional state of mind.

He advises to pay off your mortgage, however, in the German Hyperinflation, farmers and holders of urban property benefited by having inflation wiping out their mortgage debt. However, property owners received no income, since rents were frozen by government intervention. After the stabilization, heavy new taxes and the urgent need for cash forced most holders to re-mortgage their property, often more heavily than originally, so that their gains were illusory. Still, those who held real estate throughout managed to save the capital thus invested. However, those who sold during the inflation (often through desperate need for cash) fared poorly. Because it brought no income, real estate sold at extremely low real price levels during inflation.

It makes absolutely no sense to use today’s dollars, which are more valuable than each subsequent dollar received in the future during the hyperinflation, to pay off debts with fixed interest rates today. The beauty of a hyperinflation is that you can pay fixed interest rate debt off to the lender with worthless currency. Almost all mortgages were completely paid off during the German hyperinflation.

He indicates that stock markets are terrible investments during periods of hyperinflation. If you study the German Hyperinflation, January 1918 through November 1923, one stock index share went from 126 to 23,680,000 million in nominal Reichsmarks. The German stock market provided one “release valve” for the pressures of hyperinflation.

However, if you measure the German stock market during this period in US Dollars (at that time backed in gold). The German stock market index was equivalent to $100 in 1913 and by January 1918 it had reached $101.55. In October 1922 was at $2.72 [sic], and in November, 1923 was $39.36. So the gain of 187,936 million times in Reichsmarks amounted to a 60% loss in US dollars."

So, during the initial stages of Hyperinflation (1913-1918; 5 years), investments in the stock market during a period of hyperinflation actually maintained their purchasing power.

From USA Gold, an article written about the German Hyperinflation in regards to using stocks as an inflation hedge:

In inflation, common stocks are generally considered a desirable hedge to protect against or even to profit from the rise in prices.
Getting down to specifics, we can say that those who bought a well-diversified list of stocks in solid, well-established companies quite early in the inflation and who held on throughout the period and also through the stabilization crisis saved much or all of their capital. However, there were many pitfalls along the wayside for the greedy, the fearful and the over-clever. Those who did best were investors with a certain unemotional, stolid character, a basic confidence that strong, well-managed companies would come through, and immunity to excitement, anxiety and speculative temptations.

He also advises that foreign markets (external to US bonds and stocks) will also crash. While the foreign markets may go up, or may go down, he is not factoring in that the foreign stock and bond markets are denominated in foreign currencies. If you have a good interest bearing foreign bond or a dividend paying stock, it will pay you income denominated in a currency other than US dollars. During the German Hyperinflation, those investors that had the foresight to exchange their Reichsmarks for other currencies maintained their purchasing power and holding a bond or a dividend paying stock denominated and paid in a foreign currency would do the same thing.

The only sound advice that he had was that bonds and cash denominated in US dollars are horrible investments and a sound portfolio should include gold and silver.

Your comments on what happened during German hyper inflation matches how I believe things likely would proceed here in the US if (when?) hyperinflation occurs. I have always doubted the "pay off your mortgage" advice seen so often here in this site, because in a hyperinflation era it would be easy to pay off a fixed rate mortgage with worthless inflated dollars. This is exactly WHY hyperinflation will hit the US since the US government has to pay off trillions in debt, and the easiest way to pay it off is with worthless inflated dollars. The folks who will take it in the shorts, and be left out to dry will be pensioners and those with lots of money in the bank or stock market. To me, tangible assets of value (land, farming equipment, firearms, access to clean water, etc..) will be where value is retained. I also think when TSHTF, and tons of citizens are in default on loans and mortgages, the govt won't have anywhere to evict them to! I expect homestead exemptions and squatter's rights for current residents to triumph over bank's rights.

I understand your logic in pointing to Germany as an example.

Only problem is there was a cheap reliable energy source to provide the building of a new economy. Oil was plentiful and it became more so. So your case is built on the fact that a growing economy will be rebuilt and in what less than a decade.

I don't see how you can claim the economy is going to be able to take the hit, and then everything settles back out to another fiat growing economy, and in time terms, not very long at all.

Now how much of the economy has middle class status and how many have poor status, and how many rich maintain in your cases. How many bring out your dead bells will need to be rung and what kind of population do you see. Because one thing, there was a huge shortage of people during that time too, before the war started and after percentages. Population was down and men were gone after the war. So is that part of why you see it the way you do. Plus a need to rebuild on a massive scale. We have to many buildings now.

Quid Clarius Astris
Ubi Bene ibi patria

OK< this is getting silly, the idea of us hitting real hyperinflation makes little sense. We may have a short shift of it, but we'll get a lot more deflation, and that will be much more painful.

Also, Germany had no oil at all. Which most people think is good, because Hitler would have won the war of he had had it. I'm not sure who prevented the Baku-Berlin pipeline from being finished, but someone somewhere deserves a statue for that.

Germany had no oil during the war, they certainly had access to it after the war and before, And it was on the market when the economy was rebuilt. As for not having oil, yep, but they did a hell of a job with coal didn't they.

Just speculating, I tend to agree with you HESF, hyper, deflation, then stagflation, for a long time. Unless a power source and a proper economy are found, implemented, and oh yes, freedom of the individual is still a right.

Quid Clarius Astris
Ubi Bene ibi patria

Try Peter the II of Yugoslavia... I believe when 17 he renaged on a treaty agreed to by his predecessor, as a result Hitler had to deal with the upstart and delayed the invation of Russia...had Peter not done so operation Barbarossa would have started earlier and missed the russian winter...Hitler may have captured Moscow and had unfetted access to Caspian oil.

Hats of the Peter the II of Yugoslavia... sometimes its good to be 17 yrds old when you think your 8 ft tall and bullet proof.

I shall clarify. You don't know how it will play out. Legislation could be passed to freeze the value of motgages to prevent profiting in just the manner you describe.(At least by the average individual.) Mortgage holders will recognize the problem long before you can profit on it and push for the legislation. In a Hyperinflation senario Liquidity dries up fast. No Re-financing, no new credit. Economic activity shuts down and everyone is thrown out of work. Today, if you own farmable land and default on your mortgage, they forclose, knock down your house and plant corn. If you own your land outright and don't have an income, you still have a place to live and grow some food. We are talking about different things. You are talking about continuing to play the game under challanging conditions, I am talking about surviving a crisis. On thing you overlook, with the globalization of markets being so interdependent now, when the US tanks, so does the world, just not as bad. The game is rigged. You don't want to play. It's time to batten down the hatches and put yourself in the best financial (and survivable) situation possible. Get out of the game before the game is called and all that electronic money evaporates into thin air.