Saturday, December 31, 2011

Marc Faber January 2012 Market Commentary

Marc Faber has just released his January 2012 market commentary on the gloomboomdoom.com website.

This month report is entitled "The Preoccupation with the Future frequently prevents us from seeing the Present as it is".
There are no attachment with this monthly market commentary (MMC) :

I'll try to post highlights of the Gloom Boom Doom market commentary a bit later.

Monday, December 26, 2011

Jim Rogers: Central Banks and Governments are Ponzi Schemes

Jim Rogers has been interviewed on BBC Radio on the 26th of  December 2011 where he explains that the current flow of money between the governments and central banks around the world is a "ponzi scheme, a fraud and a sham" and everything is going to get much worse in the end.


Here's the transcript of the interview:


Jim Rogers: Martin, it's very serious. America is the largest debtor nation in the history of the world and it's getting bigger and bigger by leaps and bounds at the rate of over $1 trillion a year. And in Europe you have several bankrupt countries and no one is dealing with the problem. If you look at the projections for all the European countries, none of them have reduced debt a year or two or three from now. So, this situation is serious and getting worse.
Martin Webber: Thinking back to the mid-1990s, capitalism seemed ascendant, western capitalism had triumphed over communism, economies were growing, stock markets were growing. Who do you blame for the fact that we have ended up in this mess?
Jim Rogers: Well, essentially it's governments and central banks; especially in the US they just kept spending money and the central bank just kept printing money. But there are several culprits.
Martin Webber: Who else apart from these authorities?
Jim Rogers: The government of United Kingdom, the central bank in the United Kingdom, the governments in places like Greece which used phoney bookkeeping, but also even Italy and France and Germany. They all started using phoney bookkeeping. They knew that the other countries were using phoney bookkeeping and they all said, oh it's okay, everything will be okay in the end.
So, the central banks and the governments were going hand-in-hand and spending money they did not have. Now, that's wonderful. It's great. It can cause huge growth. As you just pointed out, for 15 years you had great growth. But eventually, somebody has to come up with and pay for it, or eventually you just run out of other people's money.
Martin Webber: What seems to be going on at the moment is that central banks are creating money, lending it to banks, who are then lending it to governments in terms of buying their bonds because the private investors are no longer doing that. So you have got government owned institutions effectively buying government bonds. People don't seem to really understand what on earth can be going on?
Jim Rogers: It is a recipe for disaster. I am glad you pointed it out because there is nothing more authoritative than the BBC. It's a Ponzi scheme, it's a fraud, it's a sham and we are all going to have to - we are already starting to pay for it, Martin. It's going to be much, much worse in the end.
Eventually one of two things has to happen. We have to get together now and ring-fence the problem and figure out how we are going to survive and start over. Or, in a year or two or three, the market is going to say, no more money, we won't put up any more money. And then the whole system collapses, then you have gigantic chaos, social unrest, governments failing, civil war - huge mess.
Martin Webber: Let's try the more optimistic scenario. You say it is possible still to get a grip on this problem, what are the measures that need to be taken right now then to avoid the other scenario of civil war?
Jim Rogers: Well, at the moment some governments have credibility, Germany for instance still has credibility. And if they all got into a room together and Mrs. Merkel said, okay, you guys are going to fail, you have failed, and now you are going to fail. We are going to hold these banks, these companies up. We are going to make sure they survive. We are going to make sure bank deposits are okay. We are going to make sure checks continue to clear and the system will survive. Some of you are going to take huge losses and huge pain, but then we start over.
It would be a terrible two- or three-year period, Martin, but then the system could survive and we could rebuild after the people who have made mistakes take the losses. That's what capitalism is supposed to be all about. If you fail, you fail.
Martin Webber: And what are the mistakes then? Is it that the people who bought government bonds of France, Italy and all the other countries are going to have to take losses?
Jim Rogers: Absolutely. The banks who made these loans, and the bondholders who bought these loans, and the stockholders who own stock in these banks. They were making mistakes. They are all going to have to take huge losses. Now you are going to say, that's very painful, that's bad.
Well, I will remind you Martin that in the early '90s, Scandinavia had the same problem. They did exactly this. They ring-fenced everybody, many people failed, there was horrible pain, but after three or four years Scandinavia has been one of the great growth areas of the past 15 years or so. That's the way the system is supposed to work.
In Japan in the early '90s, they said nobody will fail. Well you know they have lost two decades in Japan. You know about zombie banks. You know about zombie companies. The Japanese way doesn't work. It is not going to work in America or Europe.
Martin Webber: So we got a situation there where people invested in banks lose money, presumably people with pensions who have investments in these banks lose money, and government bonds lose money too. But the politicians have a much nicer sounding solution it seems, which they have just come up with, which is that the European Central Bank creates money, lends it to the IMF and the IMF then lends it back to them. Sounds much nicer, doesn't it?
Jim Rogers: It sounds wonderful, doesn't it? But it is not based on reality. It's based on "Never Never Land." It's based on the "tooth fairy." Somebody has got to come up with real money somewhere along the line and payoff real debts somewhere along the line.
Martin Webber: But isn't that possible, that if you are the government, you can create as much money as you want because it's your money?
Jim Rogers: You certainly can. You can debase currency, and history is replete with governments that have debased their own currency and ruined their own currency for hundreds of - well for thousands of years it has been going on. You can do that and everything is okay for a while, but eventually you have inflation, you have high interest rates, you have currency turmoil, you have people no longer trusting each other to invest with each other, and then you have the end of the system, and we have chaos, and it starts over again.
Martin Webber: Is that not the more likely scenario in that the politicians never like to tackle problems. They are always interested in the next day's headlines. Isn't it more likely they will find yet another ruse to put off the day of reckoning?
Jim Rogers: Absolutely. You are a very insightful observer of the passing scene. That's exactly what they are going to do. If a politician ran on the platform, oh my gosh, we have got to take a lot of pain. Even if he won, Martin, which is very unlikely, but even if that politician won, after six months or a year or two of serious pain, he will be either thrown out or assassinated or something would happen because people would say this is too much pain. We didn't know you meant it was going to be this bad. Let's get out of this.
Martin Webber: Now many people say it's the euro that's at the heart of this crisis. They are calling it the "euro crisis." Is that how you see it?
Jim Rogers: No, absolutely not. It's not the euro. The world needs the euro or something like it to compete with the US dollar. We need another sound currency. The eurozone as a whole is not a big debtor nation. The eurozone has some debtor problems, some debtor nations, debtor states, but it's not a big, big problem. The euro is good for the world. It needs to work.
Martin Webber: Do you think in the past that political leaders were stronger, perhaps were less influenced by short-term considerations, had a greater feeling for the common good, perhaps the people themselves had a greater community spirit and would actually be happier to take austerity to understand you have to live within your means. Do you think in a way it's not just the political class, this is something at issue in society as a whole?
Jim Rogers: That's good observation, yes. We did have more discipline and more understanding in the past few decades, but that's partly because of the history of those decades. We remembered the First and Second World War. We remembered the Great Depression. We remembered what happened when you got too leveraged and couldn't pay your bills. We knew what happened when you debased your currency.
But now of course, since the Second World War, we have had two or three generations grow up who don't remember all of that, haven't read their history, politicians who didn't know anything about history at all and don't know anything about economics at all. So everybody thinks there's a free lunch.
Martin Webber: Do you think the media is to blame?
Jim Rogers: Well, the media are the same ones, Martin. I mean, you and everybody else grew up went to the same schools, had the same teachings and had the same period of good times. Since the Second World War, things have been pretty good in most of the western world, the developed world anyway, and we all grew up thinking, well this is the way the world is and it has been that way. But that's not the way the world has been for the past few thousand years.
Martin Webber: We have had this "Occupy Wall Street" movement emerging. Do you have any sympathy with any of the things that they are saying?
Jim Rogers: Well, I do have sympathy with the fact that they are saying, we shouldn't have bailed out the banks. I would have let all those banks go bankrupt, as you've heard me say before. But beyond that I don't have too much sympathy with them. You know, we all want a free lunch. I would like somebody to pay my bills too. I would like somebody to take care of me the rest of my life too.
Listen it's outrageous that the government took the money and saved the banks. Absolutely, they are right about that. It's outrageous, totally outrageous that governments went and bailed out some banker so they could keep their Lamborghinis and their summerhouses. But beyond that, I don't have too much sympathy with them.
Martin, whenever there are hard times, people look for somebody to blame. And they always blame the financial people, they always blame foreigners, and they always blame reporters. They always say, well if the reporters didn't write about this problem, we wouldn't have a problem. So be careful. Financial types get blamed first, the foreigners get blamed second, you are next.
Martin Webber: Okay. I am prepared.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Jim Rogers and Jeremy Gratham: Bonds are a Terrible Investment

Jim Rogers recently told Fox Business Network that he plans to short US bonds in the future and to buy them now would be a “terrible mistake”.

"I am not short bonds yet but I plan to be short bonds," he said. "If the world economy gets better, you are going to make money in commodities because that is where the shortages are. If the economy does not get better, they are going to print money and when it does get better, you better own commodities, such as silver and rice."

Rogers warned it would be dangerous to own US T-bills now but admitted he had been burned a few times recently when he attempted to short the asset class.


Yesterday, GMO (Jeremy Grantham) released their 7-year forecast, and all bonds (except Emerging Debt) are expected to provide negative returns every year (on aggregate) over the next 7 year.

Here are GMO forecasts:
  • US Bonds: -1% per year
  • International Bonds: -2.1% per year
  • Emerging Debt: 1.5% per year
  • Index Linked Bonds: -1% per year
  • Cash: -0.7% per year

The best 2 investments over this 7 years would be international large caps (6.4%) and emerging markets (6.5%).

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Jim Rogers: North and South Korea may Merge Within 5 Years

Following the death of Kim Jong-il this week, Jim Rogers was asked his views on North Korea and South Korea. He expects them to merge within 5 years in what would make a strong Korea with cheap labor and natural resources in the North and good management in the South.


You can invest in South Korea via iShares MSCI South Korea Index (EWY) or IQ South Korea Small Cap ETF (SKOR). There is currently no easy to invest directly in North Korea, especially due to US restrictions on North Korea.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

David Morgan $60 Silver AND $2,500 Gold for 2012

Interview with David Morgan of http://www.silver-investor.com/ and VisionVictory (Youtube), where they discuss the Silver and Gold markets and David Morgan expects Silver to reach 60 USD and Gold 2500 USD in 2012.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

GEAB 60: Global Systemic Crisis: USA 2012/2016 : An Insolvent and Ungovernable Country

Here are the highlights of GEAB 60 (December 2011) entitled "Global Systemic Crisis: USA 2012/2016 : An Insolvent and Ungovernable Country ":
  • From the non-dismemberment of the Euroland to the dismemberment of the United Kingdom: The United Kingdom could be broken up with Wales and Scotland becoming independent countries.
  • The Future of the USA 2012/2016 : The United States are insolvent and ungovernable. The US dollar may drop by 30% against a basket of currencies.
  • Yearly evaluation of LEAP anticipations – 82% success in 2011
  • Strategic and operational recommendations - Currency trend reversal, gold constant and British pounds currency crisis by 2015.
  • The GlobalEurometre - Results & Analyses - 65% of respondents expect a collapse of the US dollar in 2012.
The full GEAB 60 (PDF format) is available to subscribers for 200 Euros per year (10 + 6 issues).

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Time to Buy Gold and Silver Again ?

Following up on my previous post "Is it Time to Get Back into Gold and Silver ?" at the end of September, it looks like we may again be at interesting levels for both Gold and Silver.

Let's see the Gold chart between June 2006 and December 2011. (Source: Boursorama)

The gold chart recently broke the trend it started in 2008. Having said that it is currently oversold according to with an RSI-14 of 27.50. This could then be a buying opportunity, but since gold broke the trend there may be more downside. How much downside? Let's see the 11-year chart to provide a forecast.

In that time frame, gold is still in an uptrend, and the level line of the channel shows support (around 1350), so Gold could potentially down to around 1400 USD. Currently is around 1570, so it would be approximately another 10% drop. So the downside is limited (provided the long term fundamentals and trends stay intact), it appear it could be a good time to buy more gold even though more downside it likely. It would however become a screaming buy around 1400 dollars. On another note, Gold price evolution may be linked to the S&P 500, as if the index falls below a certain level, say 1000, we are likely to see further quantitative easing (or similar).

Let's now study Silver. Here's the silver chart (via SLV ETF) between June 2006 and December 2011.

Silver has also just broken the trend it started in 2008, it is however not yet in oversold territory with a RSI-14 of 33.8. If SLV cannot rebound quickly, it could easily go back to the low 20s with a very strong support at 20. This kind of level would also mean Gold between 1200 and 1300 which I don't think we'll get to.

To conclude, if we don't go through a major market panic in the next few weeks, it might be a good time to buy some Gold and Silver, especially if you are fine with a potential further 10% correction in Gold and over 20% in Silver in the short to medium term and are confident in the long term fundamentals of precious metals.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Marc Faber: The Derivative Market Will Cease to Exist

Marc Faber is interviewed by Reuters (8th of December 2011) and says there will be a global market collapse and the entire derivatives market will one day cease to exist.

Most people will be lucky if they still have 50% of their money in 5 years time. That's why he recommend equities as they should still have some values, would avoid government bonds, and said cash is only useful for short period of time.

Marc Faber: The Best Would Be to Disolve Europe

Fox Business interview with Marc Faber on the 8th of December 2011.

He discusses about the Europe crisis, and possible solutions.
He thinks there could be dual currency. i.e for greece the Drachma and the Euro, like it is done in South America, where you can use both the local currency and the dollar.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

6 Video Interviews With Jim Rogers

TheStreetTV has uploaded 6 short video interviews with Jim Rogers on the 6-7 December 2011.

2012 Investment Strategy


Fed Is the Worst Central Bank


Own Japanese Stocks for 2 to 3 Years


Adam Smith for President?


China's #1 Problem


Euro Will Survive 2012

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Jeremy Grantham Quarterly Newsletter December 2011 Summary

Jeremy Granthan from GMO has just released its Quarterly Newsletters entitled "The Shortest Quarterly Letter Ever".

Yes, it's short, it's just 4 pages long and comprise a list of notes to himself, subject that he plans to write about mainly:
  • Caution is advised due to the situation in Europe.
  • The U.S., and to some extent the world, will not easily recover from the current level of debt overhang.
  • Western world will know a period of slow growth due to population dynamics and lack of savings especially in the US and the UK.
  • US income gap inequality.
  • Equity markets have been absolutely bombarded by bad news since last spring.
  • Profit margins are likely to decrease.
  • “No Market for Young Men.”: A market forecast of the market (S&P 500) based on previous bear market and showing it return below 1000 and staying there for about 10 more years.
  • Underweight equities until the market becomes cheap again or during the next 3rd year of the presidential cycle (2015) whichever comes first.

Finally he gives some recommendations:

  • Avoid lower quality U.S. stocks but otherwise have a near normal weight in global equities.
  • Tilt, where possible, to safety.
  • Try to avoid duration risk in bonds. For the long term they are desperately unattractive.
  • I like (personally) resources in the ground on a 10-year horizon, but I am nibbling in very slowly because, as per my Quarterly Letter on resources in April 2011, I fear a major short-term decline in commodities based on a combination of less bad weather – which has been bad, but indeed less bad – and economic weakness, especially in China. Prices have declined, often quite substantially, since that letter. However, I believe chances for further price declines in resources are still better than 50/50 as China and the world slow down for a while, and the weather becomes a bit more stable.
You can read the complete 4-page newsletter available for free on GMO website.

Marc Faber: Chance for Hard Landing in China

Interview with Marc Faber on CNBC on the 2nd of December 2011.

He talks about the Chinese economy and explains it's likely to have an hard landing.
If the Chinese economy slows down, commodities price goes down and country such as Brazil, Canada, Australia will all be affected.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Marc Faber December 2011 Market Commentary

Marc Faber has just released his December 2011 market commentary on the gloomboomdoom.com website.

This month report is entitled "We live in a Society that espouses Merit, Equality, and a Level playing Field and exalts People with Wealth, Power, and Celebrity".

There are 2 attachments to the monthly market commentary (MMC) :
  • A publication by Walter Molano dated 28th of July 2011
  • A publication by Walter Molano dated 17th of November 2011

Walter T. Molano is a Managing Partner and the Head of Research at BCP Securities, LLC.

I'll try to post highlights of the Gloom Boom Doom market commentary a bit later.