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Everyone sees that in the long term, prices for real estate, services, food in restaurants, products in supermarkets, etc. are increasing. And these price jumps, in my opinion, will only increase and accelerate in the long term. I can imagine people looking back at gold now being around 4,400 and saying, "We should have bought gold back then." Because now it costs 40,000 or 400,000, who knows?
I believe that the direction of movement is upward. Global inflation is relentlessly eroding purchasing power as consumer prices, food costs, and basic necessities skyrocket in global markets. This sustained price increase indicates a permanent structural change, not a short-term economic anomaly. Marc Faber, a seasoned Swiss ," warns that monetary authorities are deliberately hiding price spikes to keep interest rates below the real cost of living.
This restraint forces capital out of depreciating paper money and into tangible assets. With gold currently trading around $4,400, investors will later regret not purchasing bullion. The precious metal is predicted to skyrocket to $40,000 or even $400,000 per ounce as systemic currency depreciation accelerates.
To protect private capital from uncontrolled monetary inflation, placing physical gold in international jurisdictions outside Western borders remains an important hedge against future devaluation of fiat money. my opinion, with the price of precious metals and everything else, the government will create more and more inflation.
They won't admit it, but whatever measures they take now, they are primarily aiming to keep interest rates low. Attempts to keep interest rates low are accelerating inflation because rates are lower than the rate of increase in the cost of living, and so inflation accelerates. And inflation is also accelerating for two other reasons.
First, tariffs are inflationary. There is no doubt that if you impose tariffs on goods imported into a country, prices will likely increase or increase more than they would otherwise. And secondly, as you know, we have a boom in capital expenditure driven by the AI revolution, artificial intelligence, with the construction of data centers, and this has a huge multiplier effect.
Yes. And this has a positive impact on demand. So, the demand for workers is increasing, the demand for raw materials is increasing, the demand for copper is increasing , the demand for precious metals is also increasing, but mostly for copper, and this pushes prices up in an environment where money is abundant.
Yes. Do you understand? If you wanted to curb inflation or reduce the rate of price growth, you would have to implement tight monetary policy now, but that is not the case. If money were scarce, the stock market would not renew its highs. It would be 20% lower than the peaks. True. Yes, that's quite logical.
So I think the real surprise, the negative surprise , will be relatively high inflation rates, and then the crash. I mean a colossal collapse because we spend too much money on data centers. Soon the world will have a surplus of data centers and semiconductors, just as there is now a surplus of cars .
It is the Chinese who can now produce cars entirely with the help of robots. That is, people are no longer needed. So, there is no factor holding back production, there will be a surplus of everything, and prices will go down. What do central banks do when prices fall? They print even more money. Mm.
And I think the trend that we've had—I don't know when you or your audience were born, but assuming that in the '60s, ' 70s, '80s—everyone sees that in the long term, prices are going up: for real estate, for services, for food in restaurants, for groceries in supermarkets, and so on. And these price increases, in my opinion, will only intensify and accelerate in the long term.
There may be periods when, as I said, there is a crash and prices go down for a while, and then central banks come in and start printing money like crazy. Yes. Madly. Yes. No, that's completely logical. You know, I've never given a target price for gold, but I can imagine people looking back at the current price of gold.
It's about 4,400, and they'll say, "We should have bought some gold then, because now it's worth 40,000 or 400,000, who knows?" Yes. I think the direction is up, but I don't deny that other things might be better investments . Do you understand? Mm. As investors, we have to wait and think, "What is the best investment and what is the safest investment?" And in my opinion, gold is relatively safe, safer than cryptocurrencies, but there is a drawback: if I live in northern Thailand, Mhm.
It's hard for me to travel to the US with 10-kilogram gold bars in my pocket. Do you understand me? OK. The customs officer had never seen a gold bar. He'll think it's a nuclear weapon or something. And I will be arrested. And then the customs officials will say that I'm a drug dealer or something .
So there are drawbacks, but if you keep gold in different places: some in the US or Canada, some in Europe, Australia, China, maybe Russia, then you are safe . The market is either very indifferent or shows complete confidence about rising interest rates. As you know, in 2020, interest rates in some countries were at zero or below, and in the US, 10- year bonds were at 0.57% at their lowest point.
Yes. And now 10-year bonds are hovering around 4.7%. I believe that raising rates will cause more harm than has been shown so far, and long-term rates will continue to rise. I wouldn't be surprised to see 10-year Treasury bonds at, say, 6%. Mhm. Many corporate bonds yield 5.5-6%, and mortgage rates exceed 7%.
These are already significant interest payments, Oh yes. what people have to pay to buy a home. Consequently, housing affordability has decreased. People would like to have a house , but they can't afford it. And this is a problem. And it wo n't disappear anywhere. The unprecedented boom in capital spending driven by artificial intelligence is dramatically increasing global demand for data centers, skilled labor, and industrial goods like copper.
At the same time, aggressive trade tariffs act as a hidden domestic tax, increasing production costs throughout the economy. However, this crazy allocation of capital will provoke a colossal economic collapse. Just as China's automated manufacturing is creating a huge surplus of robotics in the world, the limitless construction of data centers will create unsustainable excess capacity.
When a speculative bubble bursts and asset prices collapse, central banks will immediately intervene, printing money like crazy to stimulate liquidity. This relentless monetary expansion ensures that deep price inflation will accelerate rather than disappear, prolonging the destructive cycle of booms and busts in financial markets.
Now let's get back to the interview. Given that most countries are thinking about storing gold in America for a simple reason: as you know, the United States has frozen the assets of other sovereign states, including Afghanistan, Russia, etc. And I think the world doesn't have much trust in Mr. Trump or his judgment.
So they are considering keeping more and more of their assets outside of United States jurisdiction. Mhm. I just want to say that this is interesting. No one in the world pays attention to a small country like Belgium. But when the World Cup was held a few weeks ago and Belgium won the match against the United States.
Ugh. The whole world rejoiced. Everyone was happy. And this is a sign that the US is not on an individual level. When Americans travel, they are welcome everywhere. But as a country, the US has lost a lot of prestige, especially under Mr. Trump, whose policies may or may not be good for the US. I don't think she's good.
True. But to the rest of the world, it is perceived as authoritarian and not well thought out. In your opening remarks, you noted that the US national debt has reached 40 trillion at this point. True. This is not a very significant number in itself. That is, it is big, but the US economy is also big.
So we have to measure debt as a percentage of the economy, and it is rising globally. And theoretically, it would be possible to reduce debt as a percentage of the economy by cutting spending. In other words, you would reduce subsidies and pension contributions or benefits. The US could theoretically reduce Social Security benefits for the elderly by 30%, theoretically.
True. But politically, in a democracy, that's not going to happen, because what politician would get elected if they said to voters, "Look, we have to tighten our belts, and we have to start somewhere, let's start with the pension payments that you get in your old age? " That's right. He will not be elected.
He also won't get elected if he goes and tells people, "Well, you know, sorry, we spent too much and didn't get enough revenue, so we're raising taxes by 30% now." He won't be elected either. True. So the lies must continue, people must receive their subsidies and in effect tax breaks, and the tax is levied due to inflation.
Inflation is a kind of tax, or it happens through customs duties, as we have now. Tariffs are an unfair tax increase for Americans. Duties are not paid by foreign countries. Tariffs are paid by Americans in America, and they have a very negative impact on the economy as a whole. But we have what we have .
They are being presented as something beneficial to America, which is not true, but the government will lie to you about it. Overall, I think it's worth having some assets in Asia. Yes, of course, that's a really great idea. Asset valuation in Asia : We had a boom, then it ended, and now I think if you look around and compare the value of stocks in, say, Thailand or Indonesia, to the value of stocks in America, the market is relatively low.
Mm. Yes, that's quite logical. But this is not the deal of the century. A profitable deal was made in 2003 after the Asian crisis of 1997. Stocks have fallen, I mean, in some places by 80-90 %. Mm. They formed a base, and so in 2003 they were cheap in every way, both relatively and absolutely. Agree.
Or in 2009, stocks crashed and were heavily oversold. Mm. But that's not the case now, but I think they're still reasonably priced. So, if you said to me, "Here's a million dollars, what would you do with it?" I don't think I would put everything in a deposit or in bonds, but I would own stocks, and I would try to find those that are selling at a relatively low valuation compared to dividend yield, earnings, and book value, while...
Mm. You know, we live in a rapidly changing world. What is the cost of a General Motors plant with employees? Perhaps this cost is different from the cost of a new company that manufactures cars using robots. Book value is always very difficult to determine—how much something is actually worth. This building, this commercial building in Chicago, Los Angeles, or Baltimore, cost this much, and now it costs 80% less.
Mm. By 80%, because the world has changed. You don't need to go to the office , you can sit at home and do your work. I can have an office in or near my home. I no longer need to travel downtown, which was necessary before because I had to exchange paper shares. No one has paper shares now. They are all electronic.
Financial markets are showing dangerous overconfidence about rising interest rates, while government bond yields are putting significant pressure on the global economy. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield has risen from pandemic lows to 4.7%, and forecasts point to a further approach to 6%, along with mortgage rates exceeding 7%.
This sharp jump destroyed consumer purchasing power , burdening ordinary homebuyers with excessive annual interest payments on standard properties. Meanwhile, the United States national debt has reached an unprecedented $40 trillion. Reducing government spending through a 30 % cut in social security or a 30% increase in direct taxes remains politically impossible in any democracy.
This forces politicians to rely on hidden inflation and punitive trade tariffs that burden citizens. Additionally, structural economic changes have hit commercial real estate, causing the value of urban office towers in major cities to drop by up to 80% due to remote work. Instead of chasing overvalued Western stocks or holding vulnerable cash reserves, smart capital should diversify into deeply undervalued Asian emerging markets such as Thailand and Indonesia.
Stocks in these regions offer attractive price-to-book multiples and high dividend yields, providing a sustainable balance between stability and long-term capital preservation . .
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