hmmm... I remember feeling the way I do now from about mid 2005 until the meltdown just before the 2008 elections. I had been expecting a major crash the whole time, but the markets seemed to defy gravity. A year passed, then another, and my warnings to friends & family who were flipping houses & condos were starting to sound laughable. Then... you know the rest.

The difference, back then you could feel safe in cash.

Now in the QE era the dollar, euro, yen, or inflated stocks & real estate all seem like a complete house of cards to me.

Against that is the option of assets that aren't tied to debt, i.e. precious metals. And they are being continuously slammed so most people don't view them as an alternative to fiat. Luckily at this precarious time, their value is being suppressed.

Yes, if prices were to be set in terms of physical metal (ck out Jim Willie's latest interview) the price could perhaps go up exponentially. However, it is also true that would be in currencies whose inherent value was finally exposed. So who really knows what $10,000 would buy in a world like that -- so $10,000 might be meaningless.

But you're right, it is the best insurance policy I can think of for the average person who is not off the grid or something, planting food etc.