American Thought Leaders - The Epoch Times

"What are the major vulnerabilities of the Chinese communist economic system?

Can we believe the financial numbers coming out of China?

Why is the Chinese economy so dependent on US dollars?

And what are the broader implications of this?

And how do Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong protests, fit into China’s economic and political future?

This is American Thought Leaders 🇺🇸, and I’m Jan Jekielek. Today we sit down with Kyle Bass, the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of the Hayman Capital Management hedge fund, and a founding member of the Committee on the Present Danger: China.

​We discuss the implications of China’s massive credit-to-GDP ratio, communist China’s non-performing loans and culture of bribery, the role of Wall Street in the US-China trade relationship, and Kyle Bass’s thoughts on the future."

O'zapft Is! – The gold/Oktoberfest beer ratio 2019 

Since 1950 the inflation rate for Oktoberfest beer averages 3.9% per year.   

Whereas in 2018 one ounce of gold bought 93 Maß of beer, this year’s equivalent is 115 Maß, reflecting the significant gains of gold since August 2018.  

The comparison with the gold/Oktoberfest beer ratio thus makes one thing certain: gold protects against paper money’s ongoing loss of purchasing power - or expressed in Wiesn terminology: against dry throats. 

The long hot summer nights are a thing of the past. The time of the autumn folk festivals is dawning. The most famous of these festivities is the Oktoberfest in Munich. We at Incrementum do occasionally enjoy the Oktoberfest beer. We are particularly interested in our popular gold/Oktoberfest beer ratio, which combines both treasures. 
  
Our world famous gold/Oktoberfest beer ratio, which we are featuring year by year in our annual In Gold We Trust report, expresses how many Maß of beer, the traditional Bavarian one-liter beer mug, can be bought with an ounce of gold. This ratio thus reflects the development of the purchasing power of gold in comparison to the purchasing power of the Euro at the Münchner Wiesn.  

Whereas in 2018 one ounce of gold bought 93 Maß of beer, this year’s equivalent is 115 Maß and thus an astounding 22 Maß more. Measured against the historical average of 89 Maß, the "beer purchasing power" of gold is now considerably above the long-term average. We are though well away from the historic high of 227 Maß per ounce of gold in 1980, and naturally also from the historic low of 46 Maß of beer in 1998.  

The comparison with the gold/Oktoberfest beer ratio thus makes one thing certain: gold protects against paper money’s ongoing loss of purchasing power - or expressed in Wiesn terminology: against dry throats.  

You can download the full analysis including our world famous charts and the interpretation in German and English here: 

• O'zapft is! – The gold/Oktoberfest beer ratio 2019: Full Analysis and interpretation (English version) 
• O'zapft is! – Das Gold/Wiesnbier-Ratio 2019: Komplette Analyse und Interpretation (deutsche Version) 

We sincerely wish you a fun read and a joyful time at the Wies'n! 

 
Kind regards from Liechtenstein,
Mark J. Valek & Ronald-Peter Stoeferle
Incrementum A

"Many people are concerned that we have an oil problem. Or they are concerned about recession and the need to lower interest rates. As I see the situation, we have a problem of a networked economy that is not functioning well. A big part of this problem is energy-related. Strange as it may seem, energy prices (including oil prices) are too low for producers. If debt levels were growing more rapidly, this low-price problem would go away. 

The “standard way” of encouraging more debt-based purchases is by lowering interest rates. But we are running out of room to do this now. We also seem to be running out of economic investments to make with debt. If expected returns on investment were greater, interest rates would be higher.

Without economic investments, demand for commodities of all kinds, including energy products, tends to stay too low. This is the problem we have today. Our debt problem and our energy problem are really different aspects of a networked economy that is no longer generating enough total return. History suggests that these periods tend to end badly.

In the following sections, I will explain some of the issues involved.” Click here to continue.

"In the US China trade war, what’s behind the Chinese communist party’s (CCP’s) strategy, with Liu He walking away from the trade talks at the last minute? What’s the real relationship between Chinese telecom giant Huawei, and the CCP’s quest for global 5G dominance? And how is this all a much, much bigger issue than just trade?
​
This is American Thought Leaders and I’m Jan Jekielek.

Today we sit down with General Robert Spalding, who was a Brigadier General in the US Air Force, chief China strategist for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon, and a Senior Strategic Planner for the White House, at the National Security Council. Now, he’s a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute."