Investing Caffeine

U.S. the Next Zimbabwe? Faber Thinks So…

June 12, 2009 at 5:30 am Leave a comment

Imagine paying $2 for a tube of toothpaste today and then $4,600,000 for that same tube one year from now – well that’s what happened in Zimbabwe.  Zimbabwe is the first country in the 21st century to hyperinflate. In February 2007, Zimbabwe’s inflation rate topped 50% per month and according to Bloomberg, the latest official figures on Zimbabwe’s inflation rate registered 231 million percent in July 2008.

“I am 100 percent sure that the U.S. will go into hyperinflation,” Marc Faber, a.k.a. “Dr Doom”, creator of  the Gloom Boom & Doom Report said. “The problem with government debt growing so much is that when the time will come and the Fed should increase interest rates, they will be very reluctant to do so and so inflation will start to accelerate.”

Dr. Gloom - Marc Faber

Click Here For Video (Bloomberg)

Faber goes on to say the U.S. economy will enter “hyperinflation” approaching the levels in Zimbabwe because the Federal Reserve will be reluctant to raise interest rates, investor Faber said. Prices may increase at rates “close to” Zimbabwe’s gains, Faber said in an interview in Hong Kong. Zimbabwe’s inflation rate reached 231 million percent in July, the last annual rate published by the statistics office.

I’m not sure if the United States should be included in the same camp as Zimbabwe? Haven’t check recently, but do they have a comparable financial system producing the likes of Microsoft, Genentech, Starbucks, and Pfizer? I think not. Our economic situation is no box of chocolates, as our deficits expand and national debt balloons, but our problems are well documented. More appropriately, I would say we are the tallest midget (or “little people” to be politically correct) and some growth hormone is on the way.

Entry filed under: Financial Markets, Government. Tags: Bloomberg, hyperinflation, inflation, Marc Faber, Zimbabwe.