Me too. Moving it to precious metals - sure, I could understand that.
Canned goods ... sure (he could corner the Spam market I suppose).
But dollars? I can understand the fleeing Government Bonds part - but moving it to dollars I don't understand... Maybe 'cash' meant something else (e.g., Swiss Francs; etc)...
It’s not a move to dollars. The bonds were denominated in dollars, and the cash is denominated in dollars. Devaluation has the same effect, regardless of your dollar-denominated investment. With bonds, however, you have the additional loss from higher interest rates driving down the value of the bonds.
Gross is screwed, just like the rest of us. There is no where to hide. Even if a move to hard assets (or some equity substitute) is a solution, I’m sure Gross’s bond funds are contractually bound to avoid such investments. Gross’s big worry may be the need to satisfy the huge redemptions that will occur when his investors decide they must try some alternative to bonds and cash—an alternative that Gross does not have.