Financial Sense Newshour Archive

Jim is pleased to welcome Ronald Marcks, who under the penname Jens O. Parsson wrote “Dying of Money” in 1974, as double-digit inflation was heating up in the US. In his book, Mr. Marcks wrote of the German inflation of 1914-1923, and the rise of the American inflation of the late 1960’s into the 1970’s. Jim and Mr. Marcks discuss the parallels of Weimar Germany to what is happening today. They also discuss the phenomenon that every burst of monetary inflation has been followed by a stock market rise and boom in prosperity and every contraction by a stock market fall and recession. Mr. Marcks sees a “latent inflation” in the US, as the money supply has increased much faster than prices for the last three decades.

Jim welcomes back Michael Kantrowitz CFA, now teaming with Francois Trahan at Cornerstone Macro in New York City. Michael’s expertise includes business-cycle forecasting the implications for financial markets including global asset allocation, sector positioning, and stock selection. Michael believes we have been back in the “risk-on” trade for over a month, and will likely be in the risk-on mode for the balance of the year. Cyclical sectors are now outperforming, and Michael believes the fuel behind this move is lower inflation. He sees capital flowing into the US from both Europe and Japan. This is helping provide the unusual situation of a stronger dollar and stronger stock market at the same time. The financial world is becoming less correlated than in recent years. Michael prefers the Financial, Technology and Industrial sectors as the best of the cyclical plays.

Jim welcomes back John Butler, Chief Investment Officer at Amphora Commodities Alpha Fund in London. John poses the question; might the US may be covertly intervening in the foreign exchange markets to support the US dollar? Because of the Federal Reserve’s QE policy, the pressure is building on the dollar. If foreigners dramatically accelerate their diversification out of dollars and into other currencies, and gold, the US would face a dilemma. The US could allow interest rates to rise to stabilize the dollar, triggering a recession, or it can continue to suppress interest rates but watch the dollar fall sharply, triggering far higher inflation and economic (and perhaps political) instability. John believes the US may take a third path, continuing to suppress interest rates through QE, but covertly intervening on foreign exchange markets to support the dollar. Desperate policymakers sometimes do desperate things.

Jim welcomes Evelyn Browning Garriss, Editor of the Browning Newsletter. Evelyn details the wild spring weather of 2013 in the US, with record cold, record heat, floods and drought all hitting different parts of the country. She sees summer heat-waves coming to much of the country heading into a stormy fall in the Atlantic region. Evelyn discusses the ideal conditions likely for a severe hurricane season; favorable winds (lacking last year) and very warm south Atlantic water. In the West, she notes this is the fifth consecutive year of a dropping water table on the Colorado River, and some form of water rationing could be coming.

This week Jim and Cathlyn discuss under what circumstances is it okay to touch your principal and how much should you be pulling out. Jim outlines the options for managing your assets, and the options for managing your expenses. They also discuss when it’s not okay to dip into principal, and illustrate the topic using the case study of Melvin and Joanne Keller. The special guest this week is Dr. T. Colin Campbell, coauthor of the bestselling book, “The China Study”, which details the connection between nutrition and heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Dr. Campbell was also featured in the documentary film, “Forks Over Knives”.