Governments Will 'Bankrupt Us': Marc Faber
Current economic policies are not sustainable and the world faces doom because "the governments are taking over", said Marc Faber, editor & publisher of The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report.
"They will all bankrupt us and expropriate us, but it may not happen tomorrow. They'll give us something to play with, until the whole system breaks down...they'll just print money and print more money," he said on CNBC Thursday.
"What I object to the current government intervention in so-called 'solving the crisis', (is that) they haven't solved anything. They've just postponed it."
Faber warned that the "ultimate armageddon" would be much worse the next time around, as "governments will go bust", which would lead them to print more money.
He also warned that China's growth was "completely unsustainable in the long run," highlighting the red-hot property sector.
Goldman Sachs an 'Honest Firm'
Faber said the SEC's charges against Goldman Sachs were merely an excuse to print more money.
"I think Goldman Sachs is a very honest firm. They have a very strict compliance department compared to the others — they're like an angel. But they targeted Goldman as it stands as a symbol of Wall Street," Faber said.
With U.S. President Obama's ratings sliding due to the health care reforms, the government was going after the investment bank to distract the attention of the people, he claimed.
"Maybe the intention is not to hurt Goldman Sachs, but just to gain popularity with the middle class and the lower class of America, so they will perceive Mr. Obama to have done something against the evil of Wall Street."
Cash Will be 'A Disaster', Accumulate Gold
In light of the current economic environment, investors should not own cash as it is going to be 'a disaster', said Faber.
"If you print money like in Zimbabwe... the purchasing power of money goes down, and the standards of living go down, and eventually, you have a civil war," he added.
Faber warned that the mood has turned very very negative among certain groups of society.
Instead of holding cash, Faber, commonly referred to as 'Dr Gloom', advised investors to "gradually accumulate physical gold and silver" while those who want exposure to shares of gold exploration companies should buy them from time-to-time when they become cheap.
"Some of them still have reasonably good value at the present time. This is a long-term strategy because in an environment where governments will print money — and I'm convinced they're gong to bailout Greece, which means you transfer essentially bad assets on to the balance sheet on the government," he said.
When that happens, Faber warned the purchasing power of paper money will go down, rather than an appreciation of precious metal prices.
"Paper money (will go) down relative to precious metals. So in that environment, I think you...should all accumulate some gold."
