First, to reprise Bruce from elsewhere- about things "you just know" and the ignominious end for the world's greatest bond investor.
A cautionary tale for all.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/
Well, for better than 80 years the farming business, like most wealth generation, has effectively been a function of controlled debasement of the currency.
I've referred to it too many times but years ago a Purdue Ag Econ prof did a long term study of farm families that had been part of the farm records system for decades.
The conclusion was that over the long term the successful survivors had retained little in the way of profit. They made enough money to float living expenses, held things together and let inflation do its magic over time.
That's the way our system is built to work. The troubling thought is what happens if you reach a point where all assets are so overvalued relative to the real economy that it gets increasingly difficult to inflate them further.
I'll submit that perhaps that's about where we got to in '99, which didn't stop us from trying to inflate a housing bubble to offset it, or set off a commodity bubble by driving the dollar relentlessly lower and engendering a massive short carry trade.
