Marc Faber: The Dollar Should Weaken and the Stock Market Will Follow

I think the dollar is strong because many investors argue that the economy in the U.S. is either better conditioned than European economies. Who knows? But one reason the dollar has been strong is you have all these negative interest rates in Europe. In Germany the 10-year yield is now negative, and in Japan as well, in Switzerland as well. 

And in Spain you have interest rates on the 10-year government bonds of 1%, whereas in the U.S. it's 2.58%. So, I could argue it's logical that if you get more than twice as much interest in U.S. Treasuries than in Spanish bonds, and you're an insurance company in Europe, or sovereign fund in the world, you rather buy U.S. Treasuries than Spanish bonds. I think it's quite logical. So, I think that has supported the dollar.

But I personally, I think the dollar should in due course weaken, and as the dollar weakens it could also trigger weakness in the stock market.

The Chinese had all this excessive credit growth. Now you could argue, well, they have this excessive credit growth because they have also a very high propensity, or rate of capital spending to build apartment buildings and bridges and roads, and the whole infrastructure. 

This is very costly. And so the borrowings are very high. But whether China will go into recession or not is a question also, can in China some sectors be in a recession, like car sales are down this year, and other sectors continue to expand? It's a huge country. It's actually almost a continent with 1.3 billion people. So, different sectors will perform differently. 

But since I live in Asia, my observation is that there has been a slowdown in economic activity. We're not in a recession, but we're in a very low-growth phase. There's very little growth at the present time, and if there is growth it is because of borrowings… but that is also the case in the U.S. Without a trillion-dollar deficit and the debt build-up, student loans and car loans and everything, and credit card loans, the U.S. economy wouldn't be growing either.

- Source, Marc Faber via Seeking Alpha