Lunch Event JW Marriott , Dr. Marc Faber , 21 Feb 2019, Where Are We Going, Where Have We Been?

Dr. Marc Faber, one of the highest regarded investment experts among the investor community and publisher of the widely read monthly investment newsletter “Gloom, Boom & Doom report”, could be convinced to held a speech in Bangkok and share his view on “Where are we going, where have we been?”. Consequently, in cooperation with the Swiss Thai Chamber of Commerce, the Thai Austrian Society, the Thai Deutsche Gesellschaft, the Rotary Club of Bangkok DACH and the Alumni Association of Thai Students in Switzerland, a pleasantly high number of private investors and economical interested visitors gathered together on Thursday, 21st February 2019 at JW Marriot Hotel in Bangkok to listen to Marc Faber’s explanations.

The audience currently reads positive business news regarding long lasting bull markets and never-ending rising asset prices. Moreover, they read about the historical low unemployment rates and how the digitalization has significantly reduced the transaction respectively information costs and is therefore positively impacting the industries globally. At the same time, they hear the first cautionary voices indicating that the current ultra-low yield environment, the debt build-ups with no credit consequences and the expansionary monetary policy by central banks cannot be a fertile ground of a prosperous economic growth.

Therefore, the audience was keen to understand if the headwinds on asset prices during the last months of 2018 and beginning of 2019 are just a brief correction in an ongoing bull market or the beginning of a long-term asset price downturn. While joining a delicious menu prepared by JW Marriott Hotel’s Chef and his team with a first course served in the form of a Grisone style barley soup (i.e. a “Bündner Gerstensuppe”) from the home region of JW Marriot’s General Manager Peter Caprez and in honor of Marc Faber’s Swiss roots, the visitors wanted in particular to understand how these movements will impact the future global economy and what are the consequences for them as a private investor.

Marc Faber’s was able to meet the high expectations and presented his view on the current economic market conditions in his distinctive, contrarian but extremely informative and at the same time very entertaining way which caused several laughs among the audience during his almost 60 minutes speech.

On global level, he provided impressive evidences on how global economic power will shift from the G7 countries to the emerging economies and how China, but also India in the future, will play a major role in global trade. Furthermore, he underpinned how the Millennials for the first time in history will earn less in real terms than previous generations and how the wealth inequality will continuously growth leading to enormous social pressure as well as social conflicts where governments may struggle to solve them in the future.

In addition, he explained China’s One Belt One Road Project and how these significant infrastructure investments offer great opportunities for the various economies in the Asian region as several transport systems will connect the different commercial zones into one trading area.

Related to asset allocation and linked with the developments explained, Marc Farber indicated that investors should rather focus on more defensive industries like consumer staples or food instead of focusing on equities from companies with the highest market capitalization where it is questionable if the companies may be able to deliver the high returns expected by the investors. Moreover, investors should consider underweighting US stocks and investing into Asian and European stocks and properties instead. To conclude, he highlighted how diversification among different asset classes is key to protect the personal portfolio during such unstable economic, social and geopolitical conditions.

The event got completed with a Q&A session where the audience could ask their remaining questions before leaving the room with a much better understanding on how they can earn money even during such disruptive market conditions.