David, the December issue of Gloom Boom Doom stated Faber's portfolio as what I noted in the Blog. He and I have some mutual friends, and according to them, Faber's portfolio is in fact heavy on bonds, though he prefers to talk about the little, obscure, strange, out of the way companies because they are that.
On real estate, real estate clubs are the way to go, and there are plenty about, all pawned in Money Rock Hong Kong.
On holding structures, USD 20k per annum takes care of the convolutions necessary to jump through the hoops of most laws legally, i.e.
Indonesia On-shore owned by three local law firms buys land, all holding in trust for some one or two entities domiciled in the, say, Bahamas and points south. A typical real estate club (USD 10 mn on up) can handle that expense for its 5-7 year life, just an extra cost.
I will travel to Shenzhen on the 23rd to look at a 30k sq meters topped out by not otherwise completed building in the midle of town. The transaction price, including all permits and land, backed by the local government, and welcomed by the bank that holds the paper, is less than USD 10 mn (about USD 37/sq foot). The club does not actually intend to do any construction, but will look to flip for a quickie and abscond with loot, moving on to next deal.
This soft / hard landing, or exploding in mid-air, deflation / inflation, whatever flation thing looks like it could be, if not enjoyable, at least tolerable, certainly surviveable.
On bonds, I count myself one of the herd that believes the age of bonds is over, and if it is not, we will go to economic purgatory.
On Asia doing relatively OK even when the US housing implodes and consumers start being less consuming, I am with Faber's read, that Asia will do relatively OK.
I just watched a totally silly "Aliens vs Predators" avp.ugo.com on DVD ... reminded me of the market, you know, where we all get rushed, splintered, separted, and then picked off one by one, screaming. The Aliens and Predators fight to the death, and we lose whether we fight or run. What a game ;0)
BTW, in the DGB Report, Adit Capital had a whole spread on uranium, and how they are taking physical delivery by arrangement with authorized facilities:
Cameco
ERA
Denison Mines
URIX
UEX
etc got mentioned
Chugs, Jay |
