Sunday, April 25, 2010

Marc Faber Accuses the Obama Administration of Anti-Semitism

In an interview with Kitco News titled Gold Run Not Over, the Swiss economist Marc Faber (whose business base is, I believe, Hong Kong) states about the Goldman Sachs case in specific and Barack Obama in general that politics rules the roost now in a very substantial way:

Faber does not think the SEC charges against Goldman Sachs will have a very significant impact on the markets since the accusations are “purely politically motivated.”

“Obama has lost the trust of the people; his approval rating is worse than Bush at this stage in the presidency. When people are dissatisfied in a democracy - you go after a minority to target – in the case of America you go after Goldman Sachs because it is the symbol of Wall Street and excessive money creation and there is also a tone of anti-Semitism there.”


He implicitly compares the president to Hugo Chavez or a corrupt ruler of old:

“Mr. Obama will do everything he can to get re-elected and that may involve some very bad decisions. He is like a roman emperor; he just gives out bread to the mob and produces games and circuses.”

Faber has made some great calls. These include being bearish before the bursting of the Japan and NASDAQ bubble peaks, and the 2007-8 collapse; being bullish on gold for quite some time, and near the bottom of the bear market in 2008-9 for a substantial stock market rally within the confines of a longer-term bear market.
He remains bearish on paper currencies. He is contemptuous of the Fed:

Faber said that "as far as the eye can see, interest rates under Bernanke will stay at zero and below." He noted that the current Vice Chairman of the Fed , "Janet Yellen, another totally, ignorant economist, removed from any reality, said herself six months ago, ‘if I could implement interest rates below zero, I would do it.’ So now you know what the policy in the US will be,” Faber said.

Finally, he points out that as in FDR's administration, ownership of gold may not get an individual anywhere:

He also said that if gold prices substantially rise one day, there could be expropriation. “The Americans could force the Europeans to do the same – once they have all the gold in the world they would re-value it at $10,000 an ounce," Faber said.

It took about four decades after FDR stole the people's gold and defaulted on the U. S. government's WW I gold bonds for gold ownership to become legal in the U. S. (Ownership of numismatic gold coins and gold-related stocks remained legal.)

There's a lot to think about in this interview.

Copyright (C) Long Lake LLC 2010

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