Exclusive interview: Mark Faber on the collapse of the idea of ​​democracy, gold, double standards in the US, Russia and China. Mark faber called unreliable investments in currency

From 1978, Mark became managing director of the Hong Kong branch of the bank "Drexel Burnham Lambert", remaining in it until 1990. In the same 1990, Faber founded his own company - "Marc Faber Ltd." in Hong Kong.

Marc Faber was born in 1946 in Zurich, Switzerland. He studied economics at the University of Zurich and received his doctorate in economics at the age of 24.

In the 1970s, Faber worked for the White Weld & Company investment bank in New York City, Zurich and Hong Kong. In 1973, he finally moved to Hong Kong.

From 1978, Mark became Managing Director

Hong Kong branch of the bank "Drexel Burnham Lambert", remaining in it until 1990.

In the same 1990, Faber founded his own company - "Marc Faber Ltd." in Hong Kong.

Today, Mark Faber's name is primarily associated with The Gloom Boom & Doom Report, of which he is the editor.

In addition, he is known as a very non-standard investor with a completely original approach to investing. It is about unusual forms of investing that Faber m

writes a lot from the pages of his bulletin "The Gloom Boom & Doom Report".

Faber is also known for his economic forecasts, which sometimes turn out to be surprisingly accurate. So, in 1987, Mark advised many of his clients to sell all their stocks before Black Monday on Wall Street. Later, he was able to accurately predict the explosion of the "Japanese bubble" in the 1990s. Every time Faber somehow turns out to be at least one step ahead of the official

graphs. His company acts as an investment advisor with a focus on investments with incredible growth in returns. In addition, Mark is also an investor and fund manager for several private clients.

Mark Faber is the author of several books, including Tomorrow's Gold - Asia's Age of Discovery. The first edition of this book was published in 2002, later it was reprinted several times.

It is known that Ma

Faber willingly meets with journalists and takes part in TV shows. He has always been a critic of US financial policy. "I would say that the US financial situation today - if you take into account unsecured liabilities, external debt, and so on and so forth - is much, much worse than 10, 15 or 20 years ago," Faber said in a recent interview in 2011.

In general, Faber is a supporter of government laissez-faire in the free market,

believing that it is this intervention that creates problems in the first place. By the way, sometimes his statements towards the American government are quite bold: "... if there was some organization in the USA that always spoils everything, then the Federal Reserve is quite suitable for its role."

Mark Faber is one of the most original and authoritative analysts, his newsletter and website are incredibly popular in financial circles. Its motto is "

Follow the opposite course, and you will almost always be right. " By the way, in 2009, Faber's name was included in the top five "world's best financial experts" according to "Bloomberg".

At 64+, Mark is still cheerful and active, and his face often and willingly lights up with a friendly and wide smile.

By the way, Dr. Faber is sure that one can and should not trust economics professors from famous American universities, but only practical economists

Marc Faber was born in 1946 in Zurich, Switzerland. He studied economics at the University of Zurich and received his doctorate in economics at the age of 24.

In the 1970s, Faber worked for the White Weld & Company investment bank in New York City, Zurich and Hong Kong. In 1973, he finally moved to Hong Kong.

From 1978, Mark became managing director of the Hong Kong branch of the bank "Drexel Burnham Lambert", remaining in it until 1990.

In the same 1990, Faber founded his own company - "Marc Faber Ltd." in Hong Kong.

Today, Mark Faber's name is primarily associated with The Gloom Boom & Doom Report, of which he is the editor.

In addition, he is known as a very non-standard investor with a completely original approach to investing. It is about unusual forms of investing that Faber writes a lot from the pages of his bulletin "The Gloom Boom & Doom Report".

Faber is also known for his economic forecasts, which sometimes turn out to be surprisingly accurate. So, in 1987, Mark advised many of his clients to sell all their stocks before Black Monday on Wall Street. Later, he was able to accurately predict the explosion of the "Japanese bubble" in the 1990s. Each time, Faber somehow finds himself at least one step ahead of the official charts. His company acts as an investment advisor with a focus on investments with incredible growth in returns. In addition, Mark is also an investor and fund manager for several private clients.

Mark Faber is the author of several books, including Tomorrow's Gold - Asia's Age of Discovery. The first edition of this book was published in 2002, later it was reprinted several times.

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It is known that Mark Faber willingly meets with journalists and takes part in TV shows. He has always been a critic of US financial policy. "I would say that the US financial situation today - if you take into account unsecured liabilities, external debt, and so on and so forth - is much, much worse than 10, 15 or 20 years ago," Faber said in a recent interview in 2011.

In general, Faber is a supporter of government non-intervention in the free market, believing that it is this intervention that creates problems in the first place. By the way, sometimes his statements towards the American government are quite bold: "... if there was some organization in the USA that always spoils everything, then the Federal Reserve is quite suitable for its role."

Mark Faber is one of the most original and authoritative analysts, his newsletter and website are incredibly popular in financial circles. His motto is "Follow the opposite course and you will almost always be right." By the way, in 2009, Faber's name was included in the top five "best financial experts in the world" according to "Bloomberg".

At 64+, Mark is still cheerful and active, and his face often and willingly lights up with a friendly and wide smile.

By the way, Dr. Faber is sure that one can and should not trust economics professors from famous American universities, but only practical economists.

The famous economist, who gained wide popularity around the world due to his accurate forecasts. In 2009, he was recognized as the best financial expert according to the agency Bloomberg.

Mark Faber was born on February 28, 1946 in the Swiss city of Zurich. He received his first education in Geneva, after which he went to enter the University of Zurich, with which he had no difficulties. There he studied economics, achieved such brilliant success in this that at the age of 24 he received a doctorate in economics.

However, scientific work in its pure form did not attract him so much, he wanted to deal with all the intricacies of the financial structure and the foreign exchange market in practice. It is for this reason that in the 1970s Faber began his career at the investment bank White Weld & Company, which was located in New York, Zurich and Hong Kong. He had to travel a lot around the world. However, in 1973 he finally moved to Hong Kong.

In 1978, Mark was invited to take the position of managing director of the Hong Kong division of Drexel Burnham Lambert Bank. It was a good career prospect, so he gladly accepted the offer. He worked at this bank until 1990.

Having gained enough experience, Mark Faber decides to start his own company. So in 1990, the organization Marc Faber Ltd. in Hong Kong, which Mark himself led. His company acts as an investment advisor with a focus on investments with incredible returns.

However, this was not his only occupation. Another of his life's work was the publication of The Gloom Boom & Doom Report, in which he acted as editor.

Like any talented person, Faber could not focus on one thing and sought to try himself in different fields of activity. Thus, now we also know him as a very non-standard investor, who has a completely original approach to investing. Unusual forms of investing became the basis for his numerous articles.

Still, Mark's greatest popularity has been brought about by his economic forecasts, which sometimes amaze with their surprisingly accurate results. For example, in 1987, Faber advised many of his clients to sell all their stocks before the so-called "Black Monday" on Wall Street, for which they, of course, were very grateful to him. He later predicted the burst of the "Japanese bubble" in the 1990s quite accurately. No matter what he said, he was always one step ahead of official data and charts.

Mark Faber is also the author of several books that have been translated into many languages. In particular, the work "Gold of Tomorrow: The Age of Discovery of Asia" was widely disseminated. The first edition of the book took place in 2002, but so far it remains extremely useful and relevant.

Mark Faber is always willing to meet with journalists and take part in TV shows. He is a constant critic of US financial policy. He has repeatedly expressed his opinion about the non-intervention of the government in the free market, because he believes that this, in the first place, creates global problems in the economy. Some of his speeches are distinguished by sufficient courage.

At the moment, Faber is one of the most original and authoritative analysts, his articles in magazines, as well as his own website, are incredibly popular in all financial circles.

A well-known Swiss financier advises to invest in gold. The policy of the largest central banks makes investments in currency not reliable enough

Investor Mark Faber (Photo: EPA/Vostock-Photo)

Central banks must stop manipulating currencies and interest rates, as well as interfering in free stock markets, Mark Faber said in an interview with RBC at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. “Because of their interventions, investors simply do not understand what to do. For example, if you buy Swiss bonds, you are guaranteed to lose money. Investors explain that they would rather lose some money on safe investments than put money into a fund where they could lose a lot or everything,” says Faber.

The Bank of Russia is clearly doing its job better than the European Central Bank, the Federal Reserve, the Japanese Central Bank, the Bank of England and many other major regulators, Faber believes. “In my opinion, any intervention by central banks in free markets is detrimental, they should have very little impact on the economy. Computers can cope with their function, which will simply allow the money supply to grow by 2-3% per year, ”says the financier. In his opinion, if regulators do decide to intervene in market mechanisms, then their interventions should be symmetrical, that is, they should lower rates when it is necessary to revive the economy, and raise them when there is a possibility of overheating. “But that doesn’t happen,” Faber concludes. “The biggest central banks just cut rates to the lows, let loans grow at an uncontrollable pace until 2007. Today, they repeat their mistakes again, not noticing a noticeable increase in lending.”

The Bank of Russia does not make these mistakes, which is a big plus, Faber adds.

All economies slow down in growth, and the Russian one is no exception, adds faber . “The question with the Russian economy is this: how much of its slowdown was provoked by sanctions from the Europeans, how much by the fall in oil prices and how much by internal problems. In my opinion, 90% of the problems of the Russian economy were caused by falling commodity prices, just like, for example, in Saudi Arabia,” says the investor.

According to Faber, investors today do not understand what the world will look like in five to ten years. The most important thing now is to diversify your assets: invest approximately equally in real estate, stocks, debt securities and precious metals, the financier believes. In addition, each investor must diversify their portfolios geographically. “Once upon a time, everyone a priori kept money in their own country: before the 1917 revolution, Russians kept all the money here and simply lost everything. Now everyone can invest in assets around the world, but for some reason, many do not.”

Faber believes that the safest assets are gold, silver and platinum. “The exchange rates of different currencies change in relation to these precious metals, gold rose from $255 per ounce in 1999 to $1921 per ounce in September 2011, then fell again and is now trading at about $1300 per ounce,” he said. While currencies sometimes appreciate against gold and other precious metals, in the long run, given the easing policies of major central banks, precious metals will be the best investment, Faber said.

Mark Faber- Swiss investor, financier-analyst and publicist. From 1970-1978 he worked for the investment bank White Weld & Company in New York, Zurich and Hong Kong. From 1978-1990 he was Managing Director of the Hong Kong division of Drexel Burnham Lambert Bank. In June 1990, he founded his own investment company Marc Faber Ltd in Hong Kong. In 2009, Bloomberg named him one of the top five financial experts in the world. The Financial Times calls him "an icon of the world of finance". faber known for acting contrary to market trends. In 2002, in his book Tomorrow "s Gold: Asia" s Age of Discovery, he correctly predicted the rise in prices for oil, precious metals and the growth of the economies of developing countries, in particular China.

In Marc Faber: Marx may have been right

There are fundamental differences between the "real economy" and the "financial economy". In the real economy, credit and capital markets are relatively small compared to GDP, and their main task is to ensure the transfer of savings into investment.

In a financial or "money-based" economy, the capital market far exceeds GDP and serves to channel saving not only into investment but also into speculative bubbles of incredible proportions. Of course, bubbles happen in the real economy too, but not as often and on a small scale relative to the size of the entire economy. So when they burst, the consequences for the economy are limited.

However, in financial economics, the investment mania and capital market bubbles are so big that when they burst, the economy suffers greatly. I want to point out right off the bat that investment bubbles can be good for an economy because they either explode growth or increase productivity. Then, when the bubble bursts, prices begin to drop, which benefits consumers.

For example, in the 19th century, a boom in railroad and river canal construction led to lower transportation costs, which brought enormous benefits to the economy. The innovation boom of the 1920s and 1990s led to significant infrastructure growth and productivity improvements, which in the case of the 1990s led to lower prices for new products such as personal computers, mobile phones, servers, etc. making them available to millions of new consumers.

The energy boom in the late 70s became the engine for the development and application of new technologies for oil production and drilling, as well as for the development of methods for more efficient use of energy and energy saving methods, as a result of which in the 80s the price of oil fell to the level of the early 70s. X. Also, the seemingly useless real estate boom in Asia in the 90s had its positive consequences. Excessive construction of new facilities led to a fall in real estate prices, which after 1998 led to the establishment of quite affordable prices for commercial and residential real estate.

Thus, investment booms, which inevitably give rise to more or less large investment bubbles, are an integral part of the capitalist system. They are the engines of progress and development, they lead to lower production costs and increased productivity, even though the economy sometimes has to suffer from the latter.

The bottom line is that in a real economy (with a small capital market), bubbles can be contained by saving and lending, while in a financial economy (with a disproportionately large capital market compared to the economy), unlimited credit opportunities cause speculative bubbles, which are beyond any control.

In the early 1980s, the US was much more like a "real economy" than it is now. In 1981, the capitalization of the stock market was 40 percent of GDP, and the volume of the lending market was 130 percent of GDP. Today, these figures are at the level of 100 and 300 percent of GDP, respectively, which indicates that the US economy today is a "financial economy."

In the 1970s, inflation in the United States began to rise. This was partly due to loose monetary policy, which led to the fact that real interest rates went into a negative range, partly a significant deficit in the markets of some commodities, as well as the fact that OPEC managed to raise oil prices. But by the end of the 1970s, rising commodity prices caused supply to rise, and the prices of some goods began to decline even before Paul Volcker tightened monetary policy. In the same way, rising oil prices in the late 1970s sparked an investment boom in the oil and gas sector, as mentioned above.

The consumer boom in the United States, which was the result of the policy of the Reagan government in the early 80s (as a reaction to the growing budget deficit), began to draw into the country more and more volumes of cheap Asian imports: first from Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, and then, at the end of the 80s. -x, and from China.

I believe that even if Paul Volcker had not pursued a tight monetary policy to curb inflation through a sharp increase in interest rates in 1980-1981, the growth of world inflation during 1980 in any case would have slowed down significantly after a large number of competitive products from Asia entered the commodity markets and Mexico began to put pressure on the cost of consumer goods in the United States. Moreover, it is even possible that without a tight monetary policy in the 80s (only by maintaining a stable inflow of money), deflation could have been even more pronounced. The energy boom and energy saving policies would likely have lasted a little longer, causing even more overcapacity and a further decline in demand. All this, in the end, would cause prices to go down. However, the investment community, to this day, believes that it was Volcker's tight monetary policy that made it possible to shake off the trend of rising inflation in 1981. In other words, after this experiment, many people, and especially Mr. Greenspan, imagined that with the help of an active monetary policy it was possible to regulate economic activity, maintaining stable growth, and also to eliminate the pressure of inflation on the economy by tightening monetary policy, and during periods of cyclical, structural economic downturns use a variety of mitigating methods.

This belief in the omnipotence of central banks was repeatedly reinforced: in 1990-1991 during the monetary easing measures aimed at saving the banking system and savings and loan associations; in 1994 during exactly the same activities aimed at saving Mexico; in 1998, as part of the buyout of the LTCM fund in order to avoid more serious consequences; in 1999 during another easing before the new millennium, which turned out to be completely useless, but caused the Nasdaq to rise by another 30 percent, and it peaked in March 2000; and finally during the recent aggressive cuts in interest rates that triggered the mortgage boom.

Now let's think about what caused all these events, including the current stagnation of the economy. In each of the cases described, loose monetary policy and rapid growth in borrowing were the cause of the problems. In other words, the economy, like a patient, gets sick because the virus - in our case, the periodic economic downturns necessary for the free market - develops immunity to the drug, in response to which a good doctor, reading somewhere in The Wall Street Journal about that monetary easing and a budget deficit are helping to stimulate the economy, decides to increase the dose of the drug. An ever-increasing dosage of the remedy only temporarily alleviates the symptoms of the patient's disease, but does not combat the fundamental cause of it. And, therefore, the disease will return, causing new crises and continuing to intensify, because the causes of the disease have not been found and eliminated.

Perhaps Karl Marx was right when he said that as capitalism matures, the crises will be more and more destructive, and that in the last decisive crisis there will be a final collapse, the consequences of which will be so catastrophic that they will undermine the very foundations of our capitalist society.

But Mr. Bernanke and Co. believe that this will not happen, because central banks can print as much money as they like and take emergency measures that, through direct intervention in the markets, will help support the prices of assets such as bonds, stocks and real estate and, therefore, , to avoid economic downturns, especially those accompanied by periods of deflation. There is some truth in this position. If central banks print enough money and are willing to provide unlimited access to credit, domestic price deflation could easily be avoided, albeit at a very high cost.