In this week's Off The Cuff podcast, Chris and Alex Merk discuss:
- The Cost Of Disaster
- Natural disasters are NOT GDP "positive"
- Watch The Fed Chair Transition
- It could be what pops this bubble
- Fracked Up
- Why the shale patch will continue to disappoint
- Parallels with the 1930s
- Military spending is becoming a bigger driver of the economy
Axel Merk returns this week to share why he believes the upcoming Federal Reserve Chair transition just might be the pin that pops today's asset price bubble:
Risk assets — equities, junk bonds, have been rallying, rallying, rallying. And in my view, they're completely removed from reality.
In the financial management space, there’s a survival bias. Anybody who’s been negative on the markets is, so to speak, going out of business. If you're actively managing money and if you do not put your client’s money into stocks, you are underperforming. Indeed, we here at the Merk Funds manage money and we see that. The prudent guys are underperforming on the way up. So clients are questioning: Why do I have my money with you? Maybe I should go to the other guy who promises a gazillion returns? Since 2009 his returns have been stellar.
I'm not joking: There’s literally one of the biggest asset managers in the US going around, sending pictures, not talking about the losses it had in 2008, about the money it lost for widows. Instead it's touting its returns since the beginning of 2009. That sort of business practice
by geedard 
