I guess he thinks the outlook isn't very good...

Marc Faber Sees QE18, WWIII Ahead

Marc Faber provided his latest views on the markets and global economy this morning in light of the nuclear crisis in Japan.

In a CNBC interview, the editor of The Gloom, Boom & Doom report made a bevy of predictions – which included many more rounds of quantitative easing (up to QE18), and eventually World War III.

Highlights from his comments included:

- the damage from the Japanese crisis will necessitate very heavy spending to rebuild infrastructure, and “that will be somewhat inflationary for the Japanese economy.”

- may be beneficial for equities in Japan

- negative for JGBs (Japanese government bonds)

- situation is “very negative for the yen in the long run”

- sees this as a “turning point for the yen”

- crisis is a “huge financial burden on a government that is already indebted”

- “I think it’s healthy that the markets start to focus on something else than what Mr. Bernanke is telling the press all the time.”

- “And then QE3 will come, QE4, QE5, QE6, QE7, whatever you want. The money printer will continue to print, that I’m sure.”

- “Mr. Bernanke doesn’t know much about the global economy, but he watches the S&P every day.”

- “I would fully expect more quantitative easing. There’s nothing else they (the Federal Reserve) can do actually.”

- mild economic recovery in the U.S. is ongoing, but the outlook for U.S. employment is not particularly good

- Oil is very attractive from a risk/reward point of view

- his macroeconomic forecast is an “ultra-bearish scenario” where “everything will collapse and that there will be World War III, and collapsing countries in the middle east, and then the supply will be curtailed and prices will go up.

- he corrected his earlier statement on further rounds of QE, saying that he meant up to QE18, not just QE8

- “until very recently the Fed has had very few critics. Very few people criticized the Fed’s policies under Mr. Greenspan and Mr. Bernanke. Over the last few months a lot of critical comments have come up about the Fed and its money printing habit, but I beg you, the S&P drops 20%, all the critics will be silenced, and they will all applaud renewed money printing. Sadly, sadly.”

- he did not specifically mention gold in this interview, but considering he has been bullish on the yellow metal for much of the past decade and sees so many additional rounds of QE ahead, he likely remains quite positive on gold.

Link:
http://www.goldalert.com/2011/03/marc-faber-sees-qe18-wwiii-ahead/