In the News: Bloomberg

Bloomberg features portfolio manager Axel Merk's gold, currency and commodity outlook for 2012

"Combined with a liking for gold, [Axel Merk's bearish view on the dollar] has benefited shareholders in his Merk Hard Currency Fund (MERKX)....

"...The dollar rally is overdone. Fed Chairman Bernanke has argued many times that one of the biggest mistakes of the Great Depression was to raise interest rates too early. The goal is thus to provide so much stimulus that you err on the side of inflation [which causes currency devaluation]....

...The euro is not going to fall apart. There will be days of euphoria and days of panic, but the European central bank is going to keep the banking system afloat and the political process will move forward...
...The place you can make money will be in currencies of commodity-producing nations...

...If you look at the risk profile over the years, our Hard Currency Fund is a play on commodities but at a much lower rate of volatility than many alternatives

...For equities in general, they will perform well if you print enough money. The challenge is that the markets are chasing the policy makers' next move rather than trading on fundamentals.... There may be opportunities in equities but even in our equity strategy we do it with a currency overlay so we can benefit from policy makers' moves."