Long term you need to invest in something that generates returns and is relatively stable. The word put your money to work is apropos. Although gold is relatively stable and keeps, it is not working for you. If it is put in a fund that generates taxes on theoretical gains and has fees it is very much a bad investment. Long run only gold producers can fit both criteria except they are not exactly stable because they tend to end up eating all the value before the shareholders get any.

Rather I advise good stocks of growing companies that generate positive cash flow. If they pay a solid dividend that is the real gold.

Sadly there are no fiscally conservative parties in the US anymore. The Republicans time and again mouth the belief but then when in power end up spending more than Democrats. Reagan was popular but created massive deficits compared to the Democrats before. Bush Sr. was fiscally conservative but could only staunch Reagan's unprecedented fiscal bleeding at the cost of a mild recession (which made him lose reelection). Then Bush Jr. annihilated the US budget again by starting another war and being fiscally inept. And now Trump is proud of mishandling the Corona outbreak and thinks mailing people checks with his signature is going to help.

Fiscal conservatives need a new party and need enough votes to block spending by either party unless it is fiscally responsible. Furthermore, they need a party of fiscally conservative members, not just a party of obstructionists. Only this way can we begin a discussion on what is truly fiscally best for America and both parties will need to present proposals that are workable on health care, welfare, defense, etc. Sadly even if one was started today and had 10% of the votes in Congress, it may be too late to control the beast.

Sadly Donald Trump's presidency has been all about the US giving up it's title as the leader of the free world and the a global superpower. Although there are those that hope the US will still be there ad guide the world in the future when a new president comes, few if no country will rely on the US and seek it as the only guidance in the future which is not completely a bad thing.

I feel we should support our allies and obstruct our enemies as much as possible, however, in a sustainable manner. Right now it is clear that the US central government is not in a position to adequately help its own people in need. A strong economy makes the US strong and that requires strong efforts to boost the middle class and help small and medium sized businesses and new business even at the cost to big business and the upper class. That however, is not how our elected leaders (Republicans and Democrats) get elected there days. We need to focus on fundamentals and be realistic about global competition. Tariffs are like putting your head in the sand when attacked. It makes you feel better but at the cost of drastically lowering your long term competitiveness and survival.

Sooner or later we will find out monetary policy doesn't solve everything.

Buy and hold the majors only, especially if they are geared to sell overseas. The US will likely come out of this pandemic closer to last not first due to its spotty handling of the virus including no national stay at home policy. Look to the South for the next big problems.

It is not fear mongering. It is inevitable like winter time if the world spins around the sun. It is an economic fact. The issue is that this can be artificially delayed by a variety of means, monetary stimulus, fiscal stimulus, regulatory measures, etc. The problem is, if you already used up these measures you are left with little to fight the downturn when it comes.

What is sad is we are already hitting the bottom of the barrel even though we weren't in a recession. This is why we are playing with zirp and quantitive easing. It is despicable. Such measures should be used for us when we are in an actual downturn.

Their production cost vs per barrel of oil is negative for most of the small oil producers. And some their production cost plus debt factored in per barrel exceeds the cost per barrel of oil is at over $50. They only live because the banks don't want to realize the loss and loan them enough to stay in operation.

Sadly stimulus by the ECB and many other countries is affected by their already large debt load. The US is fortunate the dollar is the world currency reserve and can float the massive debt. This is much less so true for other countries. We will see how Japan's yen does after floating another debt bomb today.

The good news is that oil prices crashed early so they likely rebound before the rest of thy market does, especially in Russia and Saudi Arabia realize that their war hurts themselves egregiously. Even if the US cuts production, their real rivals are other non OPEC countries. Unless they figure a way to get them into OPEC they will become ever increasingly irrelevant.

Invest in things that will still have demand regardless of a downturn or the virus. Sadly that won't be cruise ships, bigger planes and bigger airlines, or hotels.