Nigel this QE business worries me. I believe the Feds are playing with the world's money system and the repercussions will be total collapse. Here in the UK the country owes over a Trillion pounds and this figure is increasing. That figure does not include personal borrowing. America cannot ever repay her debt imho. University loan debt in US is huge as well and the answer to all these concerns is to have more debt.
My intention is to trade well and convert all this electronic money into something solid so that when all this blows up those things will remain. Nigel is this worthy advice to all traders or am I just a doomsayer?
Olu
Yes Olu, I think it's likely that the current monetary system will eventually run its course and then we will gradually shift to something different. As has happened over and over again ever since humans started trading with each other! Certainly, looking at the way things are now, particularly in the developed economies (UK, US, Japan, most of Europe), it's not hard to see why some people look at the current monetary configuration as being pretty much on its last legs!
Having said that, if you can look past the banking/finance/bond market woes, it's not difficult to be very bullish on the world economy. Some of the technological advances that are being made are truly incredible nowadays. Things like robotics, 3D printing, increasing solar energy efficiencies, the list goes on. These things, and others that we might not have thought of yet, are perfectly capable of kicking off a huge era of abundance and prosperity.
Of course there will be challenges along the way - I'm not quite sure that we have got our heads around the implications of these technologies and how they will change our lives, and politics/revolution/war are always big concerns, but overall I think the outlook is bright.
For what it's worth, and this isn't investment advice(!), I think we will have a large stock market correction at some point over the next few years, during which the debt bubble will eventually burst. There'll be a rocky few years and lots of people will lose everything and feel like the world is ending etc., etc, but that will be the buying opportunity of a lifetime, as a huge new multi-generational secular bull is born.
That's how I'm going to play it anyway! While we wait for that though, yes, I would be careful where I kept my money - Cyprus, MF Global, etc., set worrying precedents in the short term, certainly.
Doom and gloom short term, opportunity and prosperity long term - that's my outlook!
