15 August 2018•Update: 15 August 2018
By Gokhan Kurtaran
LONDON
Investment guru Marc Faber has said U.S. President Donald Trump is acting “like the elephant in porcelain shop”.
Turkish assets provide investment opportunity to investors from around the world, Faber, the editor and publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom Report, told Anadolu Agency.
Criticizing American foreign policy, Faber in a phone interview on Wednesday said: “Trump doesn’t pursue foreign diplomacy. He is just like an elephant in a porcelain shop. He picks on this, picks on that, but there is no diplomacy at all.”
Pointing out that Turkey has some leverage regarding the recent tension between the U.S. and Turkey, Faber added: “This is the Trump card that Turkey have, NATO. NATO has significant bases in Turkey. In the long run basically Turkey has two options; it can be closer to Europe and stay in NATO, or it could join the Shanghai cooperation.”
“That would imply that Turkey abandoned or have less relationships with the West and more relationships with Russia and China. This is a possibility that Mr. Erdogan has. I think Trump, doesn’t realize that this option is very realistic.”
Faber also noted that Turkish assets might well present a good investment opportunity at the moment.
“People always say they would like to buy low and sell high. Turkish stocks are valued in U.S. dollars. Now it’s in buying range. I think I will buy some Turkish stocks, ETF’s [Exchange Traded Funds]. I own some [Turkish] bonds. It’s not the huge portion of my portfolio but yes I own some Turkish debts. I think it’s the time to buy Turkish assets," Faber added.
On the other hand, in order to avoid further volatility, Turkey’s economy should narrow down it’s trade deficit and current account deficit.
The famous investor also noted that Trump’s trade war might cause a bigger headache for the global economy in the future.
“Trump is surrounded by number of economists and they think that American trade deficit [is] relative, relative decline of American labour force is due to import China. The import from China is symptoms of having become less competitive. Capital spending in U.S. has been low for 20-30 years. Economists have always argued to boost consumption in order to stimulate the economy. Obviously, one of the consequences of this is the growing trade deficit.”
Known with his predictions and also called as Mr. Doom in finance world, Faber said: “Trade war is crazy, completely crazy. It is occurring now at this time when the global economy is slowing down. If you look at the price of copper, price of lumber, they already collapsed that is a sign that the global economy is weakening very rapidly. I think we are going go into a recession.”
