Friday, July 31, 2015

Jim Rickards: Rope-a-Dope Economy

Jim Rickards writes this new article for investors in Australia. The article is written to them but covers the global macro economic situation. Below are a few quotes. You can read the full article here.

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Nobody could doubt that Muhammad Ali is one of the greatest boxers of all time.
He calls himself ‘The Greatest’, but among fans and sportswriters, he is also ‘the People’s Champion’. That’s because of his popularity and ability to connect with everyday citizens around the world.
Ali’s lifetime record in professional fights was 56–5 with 37 knockouts. Before becoming a pro, he won a gold medal for the US Olympic boxing team in the 1960 Olympics in Rome.
Ali did not look like the most intimidating boxer in the ring. Others, like Sonny Liston and Joe Frazier, had fiercer demeanours.
But Ali had a combination of smarts, agility and creativity that none of his opponents could match. He declared he could ‘float like a butterfly and sting like a bee’ in the ring. This was a way to capture the combination of his fluid motion and lightning-like knockout punch.
Ali also invented a technique he called ‘rope-a-dope’. The idea was simple, but few boxers could pull it off. Ali would lean back on the ropes and absorb punishment from his opponent, even pretending to be weakened. Then he would bounce off the ropes, strike back and inflict a powerful combination of painful blows on his opponent.
The point of rope-a-dope was not that it worked once, but that it worked repeatedly. Opponents could not resist the sight of a seemingly weakened Ali leaning on the ropes. The result was always the same — a refreshed Ali would lash out, cause real damage and eventually win the fight.
You can understand the global economy today as an exercise in rope-a-dope. On one side, you have the forces of deflation…and on the other, the forecasts and policy experiments of central bankers.


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