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.
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