As the world edges closer to the next crisis, today the man who has become legendary for his predictions on QE and historic moves in currencies, told King World News that the global reset will come like a thief in the night.
Egon von Greyerz continues: “It is absolutely unreal how the world pays so much respect to mediocrity or even incompetence when it comes to running the financial system. Central banks and their heads have created this monster balloon which is now waiting to be popped. They have given the world the impression that they have been instrumental in saving the world economy. The central bank chiefs that managed to retire before the balloon burst can count themselves lucky. In my view, the luck is now in the process of running out for the present ones.
These chiefs believe so much in their own ability as saviors of the world that they don’t understand that all they are doing is creating a much bigger monster by printing and printing and printing. They are so arrogant that they can’t even call their actions by an honest name. What they are doing is sheer Money Printing or MP. But instead they call it QE or Quantitative Easing. What an absolutely ridiculous name that is designed to hide their own inadequacies as well as cheating the people. Nobody understands what QE means and that is, of course, deliberate. They simply confuse the people and mislead them into believing that their hocus pocus is actually some alchemistic formula that creates eternal prosperity.
These central bank heads are now so confident of their control of the situation that they are turning the QE to QT (Quantitative Tightening). That is, of course, utter and sheer arrogance. QE hasn’t worked. All it has done is to turn a fragile financial system into the biggest bubble in history. Even with zero or negative interest rates combined with massive MP, real GDP is not growing (measured with real inflation). Also, several dollars, euros or pounds of credit expansion are required in order to create just one dollar, euro, etc, of GDP growth.
Thus, the $2.5 quadrillion monster bubble contains just empty promises that all disappear when the bubble is popped. These promises are not only words, but also $2.5 quadrillion of monetary promises or IOUs. To keep the bubble from deflating, central banks have had to constantly pump it up bigger and bigger. So more and more debt will fill the bubble together with inflated assets and even more empty words from bankers and politicians to make it all look plausible.
The debt explosion is not just a US disease. It is a US-led global phenomenon that has infiltrated most nations around with a central bank that can print money. Just look at the chart below illustrating how global debt has tripled since 1999 from $80 trillion to $240 trillion today.
When the global debt and asset bubble pops, the world will find out that there was nothing inside. Of course, there are real assets and real wealth, but the problem is that when the bubble pops, all the debt will implode because no one can repay it, and with that, a lot of the assets will become worthless.
The only question is if stocks, bonds, property, and other assets, will go down by 75% or 95%. In my view, the biggest bubble in history will lead to the biggest collapse. There is no one that can save the world from the biggest financial calamity in history. MP (QE) will have zero effect except for causing temporary hyperinflation. A lot of assets will decline by 100%, such as money in the bank, bubble companies which are heavily leveraged – like Tesla – and many others. Even very valuable assets will be able to be purchased (in today’s money) for pennies on the dollar, euro or pound.
Paper money has always come and gone throughout history since no fiat currency has ever survived. For 5,000 years gold has represented stable purchasing power and the only money that has lasted for thousands of years. This is why countries that understand the importance of physical gold continue to accumulate, countries such as Russia, China and India.In the meantime, the rest of the world has invested less than 0.5% of world financial assets into physical gold.
Just look at China’s astonishing gold accumulation in the chart below. Another 140 tonnes was purchased in June, taking the total up to 16,000 tonnes with virtually all of it acquired since 2007.
The next decline in financial markets is likely to start in late 2018 or early 2019. And this will not be an ordinary decline or normal correction. Instead, it will be the beginning of the biggest global bear market in history. And this time central banks and governments will fail in their attempts to save the system. They will, however, certainly print a lot of money and try to reduce interest rates. But as global bond markets collapse, rates will go up rapidly. This means that bonds and stocks will both crash along with most assets.
We are approaching the end of the debt Train Wreck series. I’ve spent several weeks explaining why I think excessive debt is dragging the world economy toward an epic crash. The tracks ahead are clear for now but will not remain so. The end probably won’t be pretty. But there’s good news, too: we have time to get our portfolios, our businesses, and our families prepared.
Today, we’ll look at some new numbers on just how big the problem is, then I’ll recap the various angles we’ve discussed. This problem is so big that we easily overlook key points. I hope that listing them all in one place will help you grasp their enormity. Next week, and possibly a few after that, I’ll describe some possible strategies to protect your assets and family.
Now on with the end of the train.
Talking about global debt requires that we consider almost incomprehensibly large numbers. Our minds can’t process their enormity. How much is a trillion dollars, really? But understanding this peril forces us to try.
Earlier in this series, I shared a 2015 McKinsey chart that summed up global debt totals. They pegged it at $199 trillion as of Q2 2014. Note that the debt grew faster than global GDP. Everything I see suggests it will go higher at an ever-increasing rate.
Governments accounted for 43% of the increase McKinsey cites and nonfinancial corporate debt was 41%. That is where I think the coming train crash will originate. Governments have more debt than corporations, but also more tools (like taxing authority) to manage it.
On the other hand, governments also have massive “unfunded liabilities” that don’t show in the numbers above. So, they aren’t in a great position, either.
Bottom line: There’s going to be a train wreck here. Which train will go off which track is unclear, but something will. And we’re all going to feel it.
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