John Hathaway on QE5

There’s no turning back.  Each iteration of QE has been bigger and the current one – I guess it’s QE5 – it’s $120 billion a month, $4 trillion a year of balance sheet expansion.  And if anyone thinks there isn’t going to be another QE they’re absolutely smoking pot… as we do here in Colorado. 

~ John Hathaway, "Super Terrific Happy Hour Ep. 7 - John Hathaway: Being A Doyen Is A Good Thing, Right?," The Grant Williams Podcast, October 28, 2020

Jim Rogers on potential conflict with China

Throughout history, when you had a dominant power who is flat and or declining and another rising power, it has often led to war.  I'm not the first person to figure this out, especially in times when raw materials become scarce; it has nearly always led to war... shooting war.  It's absurd.  Nobody's ever won any of those shooting wars in the end, but that has usually been the way history has usually played itself out.  And I sit here and I say to myself, "This is totally absurd... In fifteen years, everybody's going to be telling 20-year old kids you've got to kill those 20-year old kids because they're evil and vicious." And it's all because guys were making mistakes in 2020, 2021. It's always led to this... It doesn't do any good for anybody in the end, but... I can sit here and say this all day long; it doesn't do any good. I know history. And the problem with history is - the main lesson of history is, nobody's learned the lesson of history.   You and I can sit here and say, "Guys, it's very clear how this ends."  They say, "We're smarter than history."  You go to Washington now, Mr. Trump says, "Who cares about history?  I'm smarter than history.  I don't need history."  Well, maybe he's right, but very few people have been smarter than history and nobody learns the lessons of history.

~ Jim Rogers, "The End Game Ep. 11 - Jim Rogers," The Grant Williams Podcast, 24:30 mark, November 14, 2020

Marc Faber: "The Chinese economy will be the size of Europe and America combined"

If I were an American, I would hold some assets outside America and I would not only listen to the "China bashers," but also try to understand that the Chinese economy will be the size of Europe and America combined...  And whether you like the Chinese or not, and whether you're racist or not, I think that portfolios will have to own some assets in China, whether it's real estate or stocks or bonds.  In all the global indices, China is way underweight.  I have many friends - they invest in China - and they find world class companies.  Nobody can deny that Netease or Alibaba or Tencent are not world class companies.  There are also industrial companies.  There are also beverage companies that are world class. When Grant [Williams] asked the question, "How do you protect yourself?", I think you need an international diversification.  I think China is an option. 

~ Marc Faber, "The End Game Ep. 8 - Dr. Marc Faber," The Grant Williams Podcast, 1:03:50 mark, October 7, 2020

Marc Faber on dishonest central bankers

Everybody applauds the central banks.  Because of course the fund managers, they want the central banks to print money because their fees go up.  They don't want an honest central bank.  They want a dishonest central bank.  At the same time they want dishonest politicians because everybody's dishonest so they can also stay dishonest as fund managers. 

~ Marc Faber, "The End Game Ep. 8 - Dr. Marc Faber," The Grant Williams Podcast, 22:00 mark, October 7, 2020

Peter Atwater on brain drain into politics as contrary indicator

I think it's really interesting that you're seeing an influx of asset managers, a.k.a.  BlackRock employees into the Biden White House team.  It reminds me, if we go back to the '60s - you had [Robert] McNamara at Ford going into the political space at the top of [the Go-Go '60s].  You've had Gary Cohn and the [investment] banking folks, [Henry] Paulson, [Steve] Mnuchin from the private equity space.  I think it's like hosting the Olympics.  You only host the Olympics at the very top.  You only go into political life at the very top.

~ Peter Atwater, "Super Terrific Happy Hour Ep. 8 - Peter Atwater: Our Sentimental Friend," The Grant Williams Podcast, 56:00 mark, December 13, 2020

Fred Hickey: "It might be that the growth possibilities for these FAANG stocks are over"

It might be that the growth possibilities for these FAANG stocks are over.  They're too high, the regulators have them in their sights, they might get broken up.  Google's growth doesn't come from search, it comes from YouTube.  Facebook's growth doesn't come from Facebook, it comes from WhatsApp and those kind of things.  And if they can't acquire, and you just have a platform that they have to acquire and grow, then the growth rate goes away, and people over time become less enamored with them.

~ Fred Hickey, "The End Game Ep. 12 - Fred Hickey," The Grant Williams Podcast, December 1, 2020