Marc Faber

All who enjoy hearing a meaty Marc Faber fire and brimstone sermon, that cuts through the bullshit, will be happy to know that the Gloom, Boom and Doom author conducted a 40 minute interview with the McAlvany Financial Group, which covers all the usual suspects: gold, silver, precious and industrial metals, the "crack up boom", the future of the Ponzi and capital markets in general and much more. Of course, it wouldn't be a Faber interview without the requisite soundbite: "I think we are all doomed. I think what will happen is that we are in the midst of a kind of a
crack-up boom that is not sustainable, that eventually the economy will
deteriorate, that there will be more money-printing, and then you have
inflation, and a poor economy, an extreme form of stagflation, and,
eventually, in that situation, countries go to war, and, as a whole,
derivatives, the market, and everything will collapse, and like a
computer when it crashes, you will have to reboot it." Of course, on a long enough timeline...

The Bank for International Settlements called it 2008 ...

Silver backwardation continues and while spot silver is at $30.09/oz, the March 2011 contract is at $30.07/oz and April at $30.01/oz. Incredibly, the July 2012 contract is trading at $29.93/oz and the December 2013 contract at $29.91/oz. Backwardation is when the market quotes a lower price for spot delivery or a more nearby delivery date, and a higher price for a distant delivery date in the futures market. It indicates that buyers are concerned about securing supply in the future and are willing to pay a premium for spot delivery. It suggests that silver bullion in volume is difficult to buy and that the physical market is stressed and becoming less liquid. Backwardation starts when the difference between the forward price in the futures market and the spot price for physical delivery is less than the cost of carry, or when there can be no delivery arbitrage. This is generally because the asset is not currently available for purchase or is increasingly illiquid. It can end in default, failure to make delivery, and in sharply higher prices.

In what can be the "Holy Grail" moment for the peak oil movement, Wikileaks has just released 4 cables that may confirm that as broadly speculated by the peak oil "fringe", the theories about an imminent crude crunch may be in fact true. As the Guardian reports on 4 just declassified cables, "The US fears that Saudi Arabia, the world's largest crude oil exporter, may not have enough reserves to prevent oil prices escalating, confidential cables from its embassy in Riyadh show. The cables, released by WikiLeaks, urge Washington to take seriously a warning from a senior Saudi government oil executive that the kingdom's crude oil reserves may have been overstated by as much as 300bn barrels – nearly 40%." Could the OPEC cartel's capacity for virtually unlimited supply expansion to keep up with demand have been nothing but a bluff? That is the case according to Sadad al-Husseini, a geologist and former head of exploration at the Saudi oil monopoly Aramco, who met with the US consul general in Riyadh in November 2007 and "told the US diplomat that Aramco's 12.5m barrel-a-day capacity needed to keep a lid on prices could not be reached." And yes, that conspiracy concept of peak oil is specifically referenced: "According to the cables, which date between 2007-09, Husseini said Saudi Arabia might reach an output of 12m barrels a day in 10 years but before then – possibly as early as 2012 – global oil production would have hit its highest point. This crunch point is known as "peak oil"." And it gets worse: "Husseini said that at that point Aramco would not be able to stop the rise of global oil prices because the Saudi energy industry had overstated its recoverable reserves to spur foreign investment. He argued that Aramco had badly underestimated the time needed to bring new oil on tap." Look for Saudi Arabia to go into full damage control mode, alleging that these cables reference nothing but lies. In the meantime, look for China to continue quietly stockpiling the one asset which as was just pointed out is the key one to hold, for both bulls and bears, according to Marc Faber.

Last year's Russia Forum was one of the must see events of the year, pitting such high powered independent thinkers as Marc Faber, Hugh Hendry, Nassim Taleb in a free for all. While the cliffhanger back then was the suggestion by Hendry that he had recreated the Paulson ABX trade with "1.5% downside and 75% upside" (which has since not been fully revealed aside from some occasional snippets in the periodic letters that it is a synthetic China short trade), the true brilliance was in the debate between the Treasury skeptics and the fan (Hendry). That said, with the entire curve surging wider, we hope Hendry took profits on his short as we are now virtually exactly where we were a year ago. This year's forum was just as entertaining, and while it didn't have quite a distinguished audience, it did feature Marc Faber and Nassim Taleb in a discussion of whether Russia is the best or worst BRIC. That said, trust both Faber and Taleb not to stick to the script and go off on wild tangents. Sure enough, the line of the night as usual belonged to Faber: "We have a big debate in the world whether we will have a deflationary collapse or an inflationary boom...usually after a period of very heavy money printing war follows." That is the philosophical gist of it. As for Faber's recommendation, it is precisely the asset which has become a short-seller's nightmare in the current geopolitically fragile environment: oil. "Whether you are very bullish or very bearish you should invest in oil."

Joe Saluzzi, co-founder of Themis Trading LLC and outspoken exchange expert, is concerned with how high-frequency trading has brought the capital markets into uncharted - and dangerous - territory. "Things have changed," he cautions. With 50-70% of all trades being conducted by algorithms at micro-second time intervals, real human traders are increasingly challenged to understand how our markets actually work. "No longer do the technical patterns - that have lasted for years and years, and are written about all over - work anymore." In the following interview, Joe and Chris plunge into "dark pools" and other poorly-understood elements of our now-machine-dominated financial exchanges. The current system is fraught with risks of further "flash crash"-like disruptions, and at a fundmental level, feels a lot like sanctioned theft by the deep-pocketed institutions who can outspend on technology and speed. This is an important interview for anyone involved in trading (professionally or personally), as well as investors who want to know how today's markets truly operate.

Marc Faber is on a roll these days. The Gloom, Doom and Boom report author, who recently made headlines after calling Obama a whore minutes ahead of the president's SOTU address, proceeds to go on a truthiness rampage, and with his now traditional grin, proceeds to call Satan Bernanke a "liar" to the entire CNBC Europe audience. In addition to making his thoughts clear on the topic of inflation (5-8%), he also observes where the Egyptian riots will strike next: "You may not have a problem in Saudi Arabia and in the Emirates, in Kuwait and Qatar, because there the governments can heavily subsidize food if they want to. But I am worried that what has happened in Egypt will happen in Pakistan... I think Egypt is a reminder to people that politics, and social events, and geopolitics have a meaningful effect on asset markets. The developed markets have way outperformed, and now I think that it may be a wake up call that the US outperforms emerging economies for a while." As for inflation "The annual cost of living increases are more than 5% today and the BLS is continuously lying about the inflation rate, including Mr Bernanke, he's a liar. Inflation is much higher than what they publish. I think that inflation is between 5% and 8% per annum in the US, and in Western Europe, a little bit lower, also 4-5% per annum." Oh yeah, Pakistan has nukes.

An Investment Pro thinks WWIII has Started and other musings from the final installment of the Roundtable

Curious to link a place with a protest you have seen on Al Jazeera (and only Al Jazeera: US "media companies" can send journos to Davos... and who can forget what Marc Faber thinks of all those who have gone to Davos... and spend $100K+ per person, but can't cover, at no cost, what is rapidly becoming the most important event of the decade) over the past two days? Here is your chance: the New York Times has put together an interactive map of Cairo highlighting the key protest areas, which also happen to be the key choke points in the geography of the Egyptian capital.

"I see more inflation and more currency turmoil as we go forward. There are huge debt imbalances in the world. U.S. is the largest debtor nation in the world and all the assets are in Asia. The largest creditors in the world are China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore – this is where the assets are and the debts are in the West. Those imbalances have to be resolved. They frequently lead to more currency turmoil. We’ll see more inflation, we’ll see more governments fall. We just saw Tunisia fall – more are coming because the world is going to continue to have these problems, and especially inflation that is going to cause more social unrest."

Earlier, Marc Faber appeared on Bloomberg TV, in what may go down in history as his most scandalous interview ever. When asked, in advance of the SOTU address, what he thinks of the president, Faber, who appears to have had enough with all the bullshit, 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?

Marc Faber appeared yesterday on CNBC and explained why he is the latest adherent of the "reverse decoupling" theory, whereby the emerging markets are to underperform the developed countries. Of course, anyone who has seen the action in the Shanghai Composite in the past 3 months does not need to be convinced of this. Faber, then proceeds to share some perspectives on Chinese geopolitical ambitions in light of the Hu visit (thank you $19 billion China-US Boeing arrangement which has already cost 1,000 US jobs), and evaluates the impact of rampant money printing on the cost of living in developing countries. To the latter recent riots, and occasional revolutions, across Africa and the Middle East probably frame the issue best. Here is Faber's take: "My concern is this - we have money printing around he world, and in particular in the US, and that has led to very high inflation around the world, and in very low income countries, energy and food account for a much larger portion of disposable income than in the United States. So these countries are suffering from high inflation and that reduces the purchasing power of people, so I think that monetary authorities in emerging economies will have to tighten, or they will have to let inflation to accelerate, both of which are not particularly good for equities." Well, yes, but who cares: after all it is only a matter of time before someone on CNBC pitches the tremendous stock market return in such stunning examples of monetary prudence as Zimbabwe and Weimar Germany.

Yup ...

David Rosenberg summarizes this weekend's Barron's roundtable, and while chock full of amusing quips, the take home surely belongs to one of our favorite newsletter writers, Fred Hickey: “Last August, things weren’t looking so well. Then Ben Bernanke gave a speech in Jackson Hole that implied the Fed would engage in quantitative easing, and from that point forward, the Dow added 1,400 points. Gasoline prices went from $2.65 a gallon to well over $3.00 ? a $50 billion hit to consumers. Food prices rose to record levels. It caused a major imbalance in the economy. If you own financial assets, you’re doing quite well. If you don’t, you’re getting hit by higher food prices, higher insurance costs, higher everything, and you’re not getting any interest on your savings ... The economy has structural problems and we aren’t dealing with them. Money-printing won’t work, yet that’s the prescription we continue to give the patient. If the Fed keeps printing after June we’ll have higher gasoline and food prices and more imbalances until this ends. And at some point, it will end, because the dollar will fall apart. What we are doing now makes everything appear rosy. But it is devastatingly terrible policy for the long-term.” And Rosenberg's own contribution: "The era of spending-beyond-our means denial is on its last legs." One can only hope he is right for the sake of everyone...

"If there's one institution in the US that consistently and repeatedly messes up everything, the Federal Reserve is that institution." So says famed investor Marc Faber in an interview he gave to ChrisMartenson.com this week. In it, Chris and he dive deep into the Fed activity (encouraged by Washington and Wall Street) responsible for the current severe health of our economic system. Both feel that once you understand the nature of the critical role the Fed now plays, you have much better clarity into what the most probable outcomes for our economy and financial markets will be.