Free Republic

In a Bloomberg TV interview following today's quixotic "QE3/non-QE3 announcement, which is Operation Twist 2, but not LSAP, and ushers in economic recession, even as it sends risk assets soaring, and somehow pushes the 2 Year a whopping 20 bps tighter so buy,buy, buy" and is really very much ado about nothing, the always outspoken Marc Faber had some very choice words about life, the universe and especially the residents of the Marriner Eccles building. While there still appears to be some confusions as to whether today's Fed decision to peg rates at zero for 2 years is QE3 or...

Earlier today, the White House released a budget proposal that included trimming the mortgage interest deduction for taxpayers in the top income tax brackets. This is the first step in eliminating what many economists view as an expensive and inefficient housing subsidy. Unfortunately, many of the critics of the mortgage interest deduction focus on its immediate costs. If it were eliminated, it might bring in more than $2 trillion of new revenue for the government or—as I proposed this morning—allow up to $2 trillion of new tax cuts for the American people. Actually, I think getting rid of the housing...

If you "want to be hedged for complete disaster – World War III… you are better off in commodity-related investments", says Marc Faber in the latest issue of US financial paper Barron's. That might seem drastic. But Faber is convinced that China's rise, and its diminishing dependence on America, means that "eventually, we will have a war, big time".