Higher interest rates may be deadly, portfolio manager Axel Merk tells Reuters.
" 'Higher interest rates would be deadly,' said Axel Merk, portfolio manager of the Merk Hard and Asian Currency Funds, based in Palo Alto, California, in an interview in New York. 'The recovery of the mortgage market is completely reliant on lower rates. If rates were to rise further, this recovery would go back in a tailspin.' "