I appreciated very much your views on Europe and especially Germany. Most of what I read says that Germany is really rockin' even while not mentioning the strong ties that Germany has with the rest of (faltering) Europe. Your comments balance that noise... 
Don't get me wrong, Germany is still kind of rocking, at least compared to much of the rest of the EU. But it won't be able to carry that weight forever, and the overall situation gets worse and worse. Anyways, I couldn't believe my eyes when I read about "positive real interest rates". Actually, reading that passage again, Rickards is probably refering to the Eurozone, and not to Germany, but it's bullshit anyways. The Eurozone interest rate is 0,25% and inflation is 0,50% and must have been higher when the book was written. But even now the real interest rate is negative (-0,25%).
Btw, Rickards says that gold would have to be re-evaluated to at least $7.000 - $9.000, was it to be used for an (even partial) gold standard. That calculation makes sense.