john paulson - gold us$4000 ...

The followijng article makes an interesting read. It also puts in very simple, easy to understand language why we will not have deflation.


"How to Bet Like John Paulson

Hedge fund tycoon John Paulson is the man who made his name, and a fortune, betting against subprime mortgages when no one else even knew what they were.

And he's just made three big financial calls that you need to know about.

Speaking to the University Club in New York, he said, first, that gold could go to $2,400 an ounce based on the fundamentalsand that momentum could carry it to $4,000 an ounce. Right now it's around $1,300. Second, he said you should get out of bonds while you can: You're much better off investing in blue chip stocks with good dividend yields than bonds.

And third, he said you should buy a home. Now.

"If you don't own a home, buy one," he reportedly said. "If you own one home, buy another one, and if you own two homes buy a third and lend your relatives the money to buy a home."

(A spokesman for Mr. Paulson did not challenge the accounts of the meeting.)

Among the New York commentariat there's been a lot of head-scratching about Mr. Paulson's takeespecially this contrarian stance on housing.

Is he right? If so, what does he know that everyone else doesn't?

Ignore the critics. The odds have to be on his side. The reason is simple: Inflation.

There is a debate raging on Wall Street these days between those warning about deflation and those warning about inflation. We are at, or near, deflation at the moment. It may even get worse before it gets better. But Mr. Paulson sees inflation coming by 2012 or so. Last week, several contrarian money managers I was talking to made the same prediction.

The explanation isn't hard to find.

Forget the usual technical issues economists like to talk about, such as output gaps, labor markets, money supply and the like.

Put simply: We will get inflation because we have to. It doesn't get any more straightforward than that.

We are the most indebted nation in the history of the world.

Data out from the Federal Reserve last week revealed that in the second quarter the total sum of U.S. debts (excluding the financial sector) had risen to a record $35.5 trillion. That is 243% of gross domestic productbarely a smidgen from last year's peak, and off the map by past history. Thirty years ago it was less than 150% of GDP.

The debt orgy has been everywhere. Government debt continues to skyrocket. Corporate debtcontrary to some reportsis rising too. And after two years of brutal retrenchment, defaults and pain, households have managed to slash their debts by a massive, er, 3% from the peak. Household debts are still twice what they were just a decade ago.

There is only one plausible route out of this appalling situation. The government needs inflation. The country needs inflation. That will shrink these debts in relation to the economy, asset prices and incomes.

Deflation would make debts even bigger in real terms. That would be a disaster. We're skirting it at the moment, but it can't be allowed to take hold. That's why Fed chairman Ben Bernanke has just offered more quantitative easingand if that won't work he'll try something else. Anything else."

The full article by Brett Arends is at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704483004575524312198244500.html