If you’re wanting to insure yourself against personal financial depression, you should consider taking advantage of a number of new financial innovations.
Considering the American Dollar, the Canadian Dollar, the Japanese Yen and the British Pound Sterling will slide into oblivion, gold is an obvious approach to preserving and increasing wealth. “GLD” is an awesome Exchange Traded Fund that allows investors to directly purchase ownership in physical gold without being burdened with transport and storage expenses. Even if the international economy performs strongly, “GLD”
will continue appreciating as industrial and consumer demand for gold continues to rise. In addition, there are Gold Mining Exchange Traded Funds, though these don’t have a direct correlation to changes in gold pricing. Another approach to preserving and growing personal wealth is through investing in the Euro, the Swiss Franc and the Swedish Krona. While most economies will plunge together, the European Union is rather isolated from the global economy. The European Union has a minor trade imbalance. However, the European Union has strong and competitive domestic industries and has a wide range of fiscal automatic stabilizers to prevent a severe recession. In addition, the European Union has a minor financial sector in comparison to the United Kingdom and the United States, thus insulating Europe from a global financial downturn. Exchange Traded Funds: FXE, FXF and FXS allow investors to diversify their savings into currencies. As the American Dollar depreciates relative to the Euro, American investors holding savings denominated in Euros will gain considerable nominal wealth. For those wishing to take a minimal risk, there are financial products and services that allow for investing money in Euro denominated savings accounts, allowing an individual to derive income and wealth from Euro appreciation and interest on savings.
There are even certain European stocks worth considering. German Telecom “DT” carries sound fundamentals and offers investors a solid dividend.
However, given German Telecom’s exposure to the American economy through subsidiaries, the fundamentals might not remain concrete. In selecting a European company, an investor should look for those companies with sales exceeding (EURO) 10 billion, with limited exposure to foreign markets and economies, with conservative price to earnings and price to book ratios, and with a powerful dividend yield that’s >3%.
When the global economic downturn begins, European and foreign investors will begin shifting their investments in favor of underpriced European equities, giving cutting edge investors the opportunity to accumulate wealth by making the shift today. If you’re wanting to diversify your holdings of European stocks, I’d recommend investing in German and French Exchange Traded Funds, as the German and French markets will be relatively insulated against global financial instabilities. “EWG” tracks German stocks, while “EWQ”
tracks French stocks.

Richard W.