Stefan Markus Kremeth

Low inflation is going to stay for some time! Readers feedback

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen My last weekly mail on Japanese conditions in global government bond markets triggered a few messages by readers. Unfortunately the format of my weekly mail doesn’t allow me to publish all of the answers in full length but as usual I am very happy to include some of the ideas and comments I have received. In general everyone seemed to agree that there were no signs of higher bond yields, nor any sharp inflation increases on the horizon, at least not in advanced economies. My old friend Mark could even imagine negative inflation especially since he strongly believes that borrowing reduces future growth and I wouldn’t argue against that. Anton added his believes of interest rates remaining under the manipulation of central banks for some time in the future, as to allow continuous debt servicing going forward. However, he sees at least two major issues with this. First artificially low interest rates are bad for efficient capital allocation (i.e. low interest rates in the US have incentivised corporates to lever up, do M&A and share buybacks at the expense of investment spending, including higher wages. Second artificially low interest rates benefit owners of financial assets at the expense of savers. Again, I wouldn’t argue against that. You know, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am seriously troubled when other people’s ideas become “religion” and whenever this is the case, I think we need to be careful. Anton made an interesting statement in this respect. He mentioned that this is why he valued “so dearly the Enlightenment as a philosophical, theological and scientific movement because it liberated our civilisation from dogmatic thinking…now and again our society falls back into that rigid form of looking at things, but that’s the echo of the cyclical nature of human history…perhaps the future is brighter.” What a statement, I sure like that one and hope for my remaining life span to be long enough to live that bright future! Last but not least I wanted to share a short statement by Robert, who pointed out to me an important fact in respect to the cash-flow strategies I am so fond of. Fact is that depending on where you are domiciled, cash-flows stemming from investments in financial assets are taxed in different ways and sometimes even in a „prohibitive manner“ and thus taxes most probably will have a more or less negative impact on the strategy as such. This is certainly true. However, as I cannot possibly know all the different tax laws, I hope for your understanding. As always, I encourage you to send me your feedback and/or questions but please don’t forget (instead of hitting the reply button) to send your messages to: smk@incrementum.li Many thanks, indeed! And now, Ladies and Gentlemen I wish you a great day and weekend. Kind regards, Yours truly,
Stefan M. Kremeth Wealth Management Incrementum AG
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