"Always try to be a little kinder than Necessary"
My modest Christmas message to my readers is to try to be as nice and kind to other people as possible and to remember the words of Albert Schweitzer who said that, "Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate."That something is not quite right with the economy is evident from the recent performance of Wal-Mart, Tiffany, Genesco, and Kohl’s. What disturbs me about most asset markets is that we had outsized gains since early 2009 (there are exceptions such as Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, and European equities, and also US housing). In my opinion, investors’ expectations about future returns on their assets are far too optimistic. In a world that currently hardly grows investors will need to reduce their future return expectations. I believe 2013 will not be a favorable year for holders of assets. My priority has now shifted to the preservation of the outsized gains I have achieved over the last three years. I am enclosing a report by my friend Michael Gayed entitled The Fed’s Last Hope as a separate file (mgayed@pensionpartners.com). Michael has written for this report before. He is far more optimistic than I am.
I wish my readers Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year
Yours sincerely
Marc Faber
"Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thought nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away."
Anonymous, Shoshone Indians
