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Does investing in foreign stocks hedge against this?


Investing in any stocks hedges against this. For instance, I have shares in General Electric. That means I indirectly own part of all GE's assets. Some of their assets are in US dollars, but the vast majority of their assets are tangible things -- factories that make jet engines and diesel locomotives and dishwashers and... whatever the hell else we make. If the US dollar drops in value, the US dollar value of these real assets goes up correspondingly.


That's only true for some stocks, and GE is a bad example. The majority of GE's assets are not tangible things but rather debt owed to GE Capital. As of 2010 only 9% of GE's assets were tangible property, plants, and equipment. http://www.ge.com/investors/financial_reporting/index.html


In fact, Warren Buffett said this in an interview: Owning talent is the only way to hedge against depreciation of your currency (equivalently inflation).


Holding stocks can definitely hedge against a devaluation of currency. Even domestic stocks or others prices in the currency you're seeking to get out of can work, but are significantly worse at doing so than one priced in a "safer" currency. There are investment firms that specialize in investing in the stock of foreign companies.




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