Marc Faber: "Buy early, exit early"

Marc Faber gave us his approach in the Financial Express on Sunday, and his currently bearish outlook on most classes of asset. Like Sir John Templeton, he believes in buying when the pessimism is at its height. He's also quite dismissive of fund managers' performance.

Peter Schiff: will Japan pull the plug on America?

Peter Schiff, in The Market Oracle yesterday, reports that Japanese monetary inflation is about to show up in their consumer prices. They may be able to cover it by fudging the inflation index (some of us have seen that done elsewhere), but it can't fool everyone forever.

For a long time, Japan has increased its money supply and exported the excess cash by purchasing US Treasury bonds. This keeps the yen steady against the weak dollar, protecting Japan's exports; and it also keeps US interest rates low, so reducing the pressure to raise rates in Japan.

Schiff felicitously terms this a "vendor financing scheme", but regards America's economic collapse as "inevitable". He thinks hyperinflation is too high a price for Japan to pay, and if she retreats from the brink and alters her monetary policy, then the result will be inflation in the US, forcing higher interest rates, and collapsing stock and real property values.

This is what Schiff has predicted in his book, "Crash Proof" (see my review here) and it's interesting to note that the author has been appearing more frequently in the news lately. Either he thinks the turning point is close, or he's marketing the book more actively.

Schiff also comments on the fear of deflation, saying "falling consumer prices are one of the natural rewards that people enjoy in market economies", a point made in Richard Daughty's masterly performance on You Tube. It's so funny and succinct that I re-watch this myself from time to time - have another look:



UPDATE

For a counter-view (in the sense that he doesn't expect the crisis for some years yet), see Puru Saxena as I reported on July 28 here.

Americans should invest abroad - Wasik

Writing in Bloomberg yesterday, John Wasik considers how Americans should invest, since homes, equities and bonds all seem poor value. He recommends high-yielding foreign (i.e. non-US) equities, something Peter Schiff (Crash Proof) has been tipping for quite a while. This, he thinks, will provide yield but also hedge against further falls in the dollar's exchange rate.

Energy crunch = higher food costs

Continuing the theme of energy demands, the Contrarian Investors' Journal comments that the search for alternatives to oil is causing inflation in food prices.

Energy crunch?

Frederick Sheehan's article Reaping the Whirlwind, originally posted in Whiskey & Gunpowder, is reproduced today in Prudent Bear. The prose is rather poetic, but the issue is how an overheated world economy is straining the world's capacity to grow energy supplies to cope. Worse still, new housing designs in the US and upgraded housing in the developing world, are building-in permanent excessive energy demand.

Safe Haven suggests Dow 9,000 "in the intermediate term"

Chartist Robert McHugh at Safe Haven reads the runes and predicts a significant correction for the Dow - in real terms (i.e. as measured against gold), if not nominal terms.

How far to fall? iTulip on the Dow and house prices

iTulip shows charts that follow the Dow and house prices, comparing them with inflation over a long period. The implication of the way this information is presented, is that stocks are about 100% over trend, or to put it another way, have a 50% fall to get to the trend line, and house prices would have maybe a third to lose.

I would guess that in terms of crystallising loss, this is more significant for equities than for real property, because you have to live somewhere.