As large swaths of the world gather to follow the best names in "round-ball" football, we've gathered three of the best names in the global financial and precious metal playing field to discuss critical themes and pendulum swings in the broader economy.
Matterhorn Asset Management founder, Egon von Greyerz, sits down with Matterhorn advisors Grant Williams and Ronni Stoeferle to address COVID's impact on extreme monetary and fiscal policy as well as the direct implications this has for the ongoing inflation/deflation debate in general and longer-term gold pricing in particular.
Despite tremendous respect due to deflationary thinkers like Lacy Hunt and David Rosenberg, the view shared here is clearly an inflationary direction for the coming years. As Grant reminds, this requires entirely new approaches to prior portfolio construction as well as deeper examinations into individual timing and risk profiles.
All three agree that inflation has a tremendous influence upon the economy, capital structures and society as whole, all of which saw fractures, rising risks and warning signs pre-COVID. Paramount among these risks were warning signs from the reverse-repo market and growing liquidity contraction in the broader markets, themes carefully discussed herein.
With the foregoing risks at play, the best tactics for the current economic pitch involve longer-term preparation, a respect for historical lessons and a fundamental recognition that further and inevitable monetary and fiscal expansion can only mean further currency debasement and hence the longer-term re-pricing (i.e., rise) in gold valuation.
Despite near-term yawning from retail investors and commercial banks regarding gold, the signals coming from HNW investors moving gold from commercial banks to private vaults, coupled with increasing gold demand from pension funds and central banks, point to gold gaining greater respect as currencies, financial systems and governments experience increasingly less repsect.
Like football finals, there can only be one winner, and when it comes to physical gold vs. increasingly debased currencies, the end-game is obvious.
Egon von Greyerz is founder and Managing Partner of Matterhorn Asset Management AG & GoldSwitzerland. Since the 1990s Egon von Greyerz has been actively involved with financial investment activities including mergers and acquisitions and asset allocation consultancy for private family funds. This led to the creation of Matterhorn Asset Management, an asset management company based on wealth preservation principles. MAM is part of the Aquila Group, Switzerland's largest independent asset management group. Von Greyerz makes regular media appearances on CNBC, BBC, etc. and publishes articles on the world economy and wealth preservation.
Grant Williams is the portfolio manager of the Vulpes Precious Metals Fund and strategy advisor to Vulpes Investment Management in Singapore. Grant has 28 years of experience in finance on the Asian, Australian, European and US markets and has held senior positions at several international investment houses, including Robert Fleming, UBS and Credit Suisse. Since 2009, he has also been writing the popular investment newsletter Things That Make You Go Hmmm...
Ronald-Peter St??ferle is Managing Partner and Fund manager at Incrementum AG, based in the Principality of Liechtenstein. The company focusses on asset management and wealth management and is one hundred percent owned by its partners. Ronald manages a fund that invests based on the principles of the Austrian School of Economics.