Interview of the week

Legend

This interview is a must watch for those who want to know what’s really going on behind the scenes of Obama’s state of the union address and the World Economic Forum at Davos.

Marc Faber is the publisher of the Gloom, Boom, Doom report, a brilliant investment commentary with a global focus that is published every month.  Note in particular what he says about the type of person who goes to the World Economic Forum in Davos (absolute final paragraph).  HA couldn’t agree more, Davos truly is another stop on the snoozapalooza tour…

As freeman said back in Jan 2010 ahead of Davos,

Here’s a bold prediction!  Davos will wallow once again in snoozy dampsquibiness.  It’ll generate catchy headlines from some of the funkier thinkers du jour, and it may even cause some skittish investors to prick their ears up.  But when all is said and done and last restaurant bill is paid by some unknowing sucker somewhere, the world will just have to get on with it, knowing full well that nothing truly defining came from Davos and probably never will.

The ‘New Economics’ of our time that so many are so hot for is really just old folly dressed up in a shiny new suit on its way to Davos.

We don’t need more forums or new ideas.  We need a revolution back to sound principles and clear thinking and a desire to fight for economic freedom.  We need a return to old sound economics.

Did Davos predict the bankruptcy of Greece or Ireland last year?  If they did, did they manage to stop it?  Did they manage to protect the average person on the street against the collateral damage?  This year, Robert Rubin has written an article for the Davos magazine predicting a bankruptcy of the US if they don’t change course.  Again it must be asked, will the snooze-fest offer any firm actionable advice to unexpecting Joe public of what a US bankruptcy, and in particular, municipal bankrupcties will entail to their personal finances and life savings?

It costs $71,000 per person to attend Davos.  The attending elite fund this trip with taxpayer money, and then don’t inform Joe public of how the financial train wreck will impact them, choosing to rather line their own pockets!

It is in within this context that Faber’s comments must be read.

From ZeroHedge:

Earlier, [on Jan 25th] Marc Faber appeared on Bloomberg TV. [sic] When asked, in advance of the SOTU address, what he thinks of the president, Faber, who appears to have had enough with all the BS, propaganda, and lies, replies:

“I think he’s done a horrible job and I think that will continue, I think he is a dishonest person, and nothing has changed… Some politicians are more honest than others. I don’t think that I have a very high regard for politicians, I have a high regard for businessmen and for people who work, and not for people who abuse the system continuously. And in comparison to other politicians, I think he came in on a platform as a president that would want to change the government in Washington, and actually he’s made it worse… We foreigners, we just laugh at someone like Mr. Obama. I was very critical of Mr. Bush, but at least he had one line and he stuck to that line, and at least he set out to do a thing and he was relatively straight on the thing that he did. He may have been wrong, but at least he didn’t change his mind continuously, and didn’t prostitute himself.”

If nothing else, how many other people do you know who will compare, in front of a live Bloomberg audience, the president of the formerly greatest country in the world to a whore?

As for what Faber thinks the real state of the union address should be, he says:

“I think what should happen in the US is for the president to tell the US, you have to tighten your belts. ‘We have to go through hard times for 5 years to repair the damage that was committed over 20-25 years by the Federal Reserve, by the Treasury, by the politicians, and somebody has to tell the truth. But the politicians keep on fueling the illusion that you can spend yourself out of the misery, and that by printing money you will improve the economy, which is not the case.”

On the topic of the Fed and relative performance:

You don’t know. Maybe [Bernanke] will resign. After he sees the disaster he has created he may resign. Or he may be disposed, who knows. But all i want to say is in terms of investments we have a very interesting situation, because from the March lows, the EM universe has performed fantastically well, and industrial commodities have done fantastically well, and the US has underperformed everything. And now we have a change: the US may outperform, it may not go up, but may go down less than emerging markets.

On his latest opinion on Treasurys

In the long-run, for sure US Treasurys and most government bonds are a suicidal investment. But as a shorter-term timeframe, and I think for the next three months or so, I think we have a situation where stock markets have become very overbought, and emerging markets in January, most of them failed to make new highs above the November, December highs, and recently some of them have sold off very considerably, plus the Chinese market is giving you a signal that something is not right in the Chinese economy, because it is going down. For the next three months you have to shift out of the Emerging Markets, they may correct 20-30%, out of industrial commodities, on a relative basis. And I think the sentiment, just recently, was overly optimistic on the reflation trade, and overly negative about treasury bonds, so treasury bonds right now are oversold, and as of tonight I got the buy signal on US Treasurys. I think Treasury are the best place for the next 3 months, as is the US dollar. I think a correction is coming in the range of 10% in the S&P and 20-30% in the emerging markets.

On all the current batch of Davos participants:

I dont think the ‘thinkers’ are in Davos. I think it’s a group of liars, and people that go along with the system, and perpetuate fraud and abuse, and dubious practices in the financial system.

Find the interview here