Summary: This week we answer your questions that were submitted. Thank you for listening to the McAlvany Weekly Commentary.<br> <br> The McAlvany Weekly Commentary<br> with David McAlvany and Kevin Orrick<br> Your Questions Answered Part 2<br> January 6, 2021<br> Kevin, it seems like an obvious compliment in the context of doing a Q&A to say that I appreciate our listeners’ curiosity, because we are deeply curious as individuals. And it’s an amazing experience to see life and to see the world from that vantage point of journeying together and trying to figure out the world that we live in and the best way to engage it in the context of curiosity, with life, with finances, with so many things.<br> --David McAlvany<br> Now, here are Kevin Orrick and David McAlvany.<br> Kevin: Welcome to the McAlvany Weekly Commentary. I’m Kevin Orrick, along with David McAlvany. Well, Happy New Year, Dave. We’re on our second week of the Question and Answer program, one of my favorite times of the year.<br> David: You know, back in the day, my dad would give a presentation and there would be people who would sit for four, five or six hours.<br> Kevin: [chuckle] That’s the truth, that’s the truth. Long.<br> David: I just don’t think that that would be the case anymore. So here we are, the second week of Questions and Answers, respecting your time and hoping that tuning in for a second week in less than marathon form, we hope you enjoy the second installment of the Q&A.<br> Kevin: Well, it sort of like the Lincoln-Douglas debates, back in the 1800s people had that kind of patience, eight hours at a time. Actually, listening to your dad, the time flew because he flew in four hours through what he called eight hours worth of material. So let’s go to the first question. One of the things that struck me, Dave, about these questions this time around, this year, almost all of them are assuming a weaker dollar and inflation, which... Yeah, that’s interesting. What a difference a year makes.<br> This next question brings back good memories. About five years ago, Dave, five years ago, we were in Argentina together, and man, what a great time. But the inflation rate... The inflation rate was, what? 40, 45% at the time. So obviously, people were having to adapt at that point to the very thing that we’re seeing the questions asked about today. So I’m going to read this next question. He says, “Gentlemen, a few years ago, you were both in Argentina. And my question, if we have serious inflation, then in Argentina, did real estate prices rise due to inflation, or did prices decline because interest rates increased?”<br> David: A couple of things I want to say… The trip to Argentina was very instructive. After that trip, I crossed the border to Uruguay. I spent several days looking for various places that I could buy physical assets, gold and silver, and had done the same in Buenos Aires, and found that generations have passed since gold and silver were a part of their monetary system, and no one really understood them at all. And it was fascinating to me because it was with some effort... It took me some effort to find an opt-out. And this plays into the question about Argentina real estate, because what we find is a whole generation or multiple generations that view the US dollar, at least in Argentina, as the equivalent of a gold standard, a better alternative than the local currency.<br> Now, to the question on real estate. In periods of high inflation, you have loan volumes which decrease significantly. There is no way for banks to hedge the kind of inflation risk that you see in those periods. And so imagine if Argentine banks were, for instance, using the equivalent of TIPS, Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities. We have those here in the United States, they don’t have those all over the world. But imagine an Argentine bank has the opportunity to invest in TIPS to hedge against currency devaluation,
