QE in Europe— the European sovereign debt situation
It is not surprising that Europe’s short embrace of austerity has been unsuccessful. There is never a choice for austerity until all other alternatives have been exhausted. History is replete with examples. Why don’t some of these stock market commentators read some global economic history? It is obvious now and has always been obvious that Europe will go for QE. It does not matter what they say about austerity. We have been advising investors to watch what they do. They are bailing out Ireland; Portugal is right behind and will be followed by Spain, Italy, and even France in the future. There is no solution that politicians will embrace other than QE [money printing] because a program of austerity means the end of their political careers. They will put their careers above the national interest.
It is absurd to believe that the U.S. dollar will be a safe haven over the intermediate term
An even more absurd belief is the one that puts U.S. dollar and U.S. debt as a safe haven. There is not any convincing economic evidence that the U.S. dollar is well managed, and there is no reason to believe that the dollar will rise in value. In fact, it is the U.S. governments’ intention to devalue the dollar and to print money to avoid a deflation in the U.S. Why do some global commentators see the dollar as a safe haven? In our opinion, the only safe haven is precious metals, energy, food and other assets which will hedge against the inevitable inflation that the above policies create.
We wish everyone an enjoyable holiday.
