How the "New Cold War" with China Will Change America's Future December, 2011

Few things push the frontiers of the future more than an army's desire to defeat its enemies. Just look at what happened to America after World War II. Our need to counter Soviet power delivered a tidal wave of innovation. Defence spending led to the Internet, microwave ovens and GPS devices - not to mention millions of jobs from one of the great tech booms in history.

Now comes the "New Cold War" - one that will also prove a boon to a wide range of tech industries. This time the United States is racing against China. You see, the Pentagon recently announced plans to check Chinese ambition with a wide range of responses. They fall under a new program called "Air Sea Battle." It has U.S. President Barack Obama's backing. The president told our Pacific Rim allies the U.S. will provide a safety net in the region. It's a clear signal to the Pentagon to get cracking on key research and development (R&D).

This certainly comes at an awkward time. The U.S. faces a daunting debt crisis. With Washington's failure to reach a budget compromise, big defence cuts loom. That will hurt in the short run, no doubt. But over the long haul, as it has done several times in post-war history, the Pentagon will find ways to push new technology in an era of tight-money. Forced to do more with less while challenging the Chinese, the Department of Defence (DoD) will invest in high-value technology. Here are a few examples of what I'm talking about.

It would help the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) efforts to figure out how to fit unmanned aircraft into the nation's skies. I predict they'll start with cargo planes and develop a bulletproof safety record before asking passengers to climb on board.

Why China's "Blindside" Could Be a Great Buying Opportunity

January , 2012

There's not a day goes by that I don't see some variation of the theme that China is going to crash, or that somehow that nation will blindside us, and that its markets may fall 60%. This is like saying the U.S. markets were in for a hard landing in March of 2009 after they had fallen more than 50%.

Folks who bit into this argument and bailed not only sold out at the worst possible moment, but then added agony to injury by sitting on the sidelines as the markets tore 95.68% higher over the next two years. People forget that the U.S. stock market - as measured by the Dow Jones Industrial Average using weekly data - fell more than 89% from 1929 to 1932, more than 52% from 1937 to 1942, and more recently experienced a decline of more than 53% from 2008 to 2009 - and that doesn't even account for four 40+% declines beginning in 1901, 1906, 1916, and 1973.

Each was a great buying opportunity, and following those meltdowns, our markets rose more than 371% from 1929 to 1932, more than 222% from 1949 to 1956, more than 128% from 1937 to 1942, and more than 95.68% in just over two years starting in March 2009 - one of the fastest "melt-ups" in market history. People forget that world markets dropped 40%-80% in 1987.

And as legendary investor Jim Rogers noted earlier this month, that was not the end of the secular bull market in stocks, either. People forget that our nation endured two world wars, a depression, multiple recessions, presidential assassinations, the near complete failure of our food belt, not to mention the deadliest terrorist attacks the world has ever seen, and more. And guess what? It's still been the best place to invest for the last 100 years. So what if China backs off or slows down?

The Asian currency markets blew up in 1997. Mexico's market fabulously went up in smoke during the great tequila crisis of 1994. And Argentina failed to the tune of a 76.9% crash starting in 1997 only to give way to a 1,724.56% rally from 2001 to 2011. Gold rose by more than 600% in the 1970s, and then fell by 50%, which terrified investors at the time.

It subsequently rose by more than 850%, something else Mr. Rogers noted in recent interviews, as have I. China is undoubtedly going to have several hard landings in our lifetime. Despite the fact that China is thousands of year’s old, modern China is a mere 40 years old, if you consider its opening following the historic Nixon-Kissinger visit in 1972? And today's China has 1.3 billion people -- all of whom want to live the way you do. It's growing by an average of 9% a year or more and has done so every year for the last 41 years straight.

We've just poured an estimated $7.7 trillion into our economy and the best we can do is 2.5%. The European Union (EU) is on track for 0.2% growth in 2012 after trillions in euro backing there. Make no mistake: China's government is well aware that it has a problem. Unlike our own government and those in the EU, it has raised bank reserve requirements repeatedly before loosening them a bit last month. Beijing hiked interest rates six times in the last two years.

They are deliberately tapping on the brakes. They actually want segments of their economy to fail so they can reboot parts of the system, including China's real estate market, which is a prime example of this.

The Reality of Real Estate Real estate has been bid up to obscene levels in many parts of the country - not throughout the entire country, but in parts. And those are the places Beijing wants real estate developers to fail so that values can come back to more realistic levels while capital gets freed up for additional investment.

Take Beijing for example. There are plenty of writers at the moment who love to point out that it will take the average Beijing resident 36 years to pay for their house versus 18 years in Singapore, 12 in New York, and 5 in Frankfurt. Well, Beijing is a first-tier metropolis so right away you know this number isn't an apple to apples comparison. Factor in second- and third-tier cities like outside Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and prices drop to 3,000-5,000 RMB/m2 and take 4-10 years to pay back, which is roughly in line with international standards. Look at cities like Moscow, Zurich, or Tokyo and the argument falls apart further.

For example, in Tokyo and other cities across Japan, Japanese banks at one point offered 100-year mortgages. And property, once acquired, tends to stay in the family for generations. You can still get 50-year mortgages if you want, and you might need to because property values remain unthinkably high even after a 30-year collapse. Here are some other things to think about:

1. Unlike the U.S. property bubble, which was nearly nationwide, Chinese borrowers must put 30% down for first-time purchases, 50% down on second purchases, and make full cash payments for third properties (where third properties are allowed). This means Chinese homeowners and banks can withstand a 30%-50% drawdown in prices before actually experiencing negative equity and stands in stark contrast to the United States, which is riding Occam's Razor in that regard.

2. Using Beijing as an example for the entire Chinese housing market is short-sighted. While prices in second- and third-tier cities have also experienced increases in value, they are far less (relatively) than first-tier cities. And it is in second- and third-tier cities that the majority of Chinese citizens live. Using Beijing (or Shanghai) as a gauge for the entire Chinese real estate market would be like using Las Vegas, Miami, or Phoenix as a gauge of the entire U.S. property market in 2007.

3. Chinese banks have not collateralized their mortgages into risky collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and subsequently insured them with unregulated credit default swaps (CDS).

4. And lastly, when the U.S. property bubble burst our country had more than $12 trillion of debt. China, by contrast, is sitting on $3.2 trillion in reserves (which represents 54.5% of the country's entire GDP). While Beijing would obviously rather not do it, it could theoretically recapitalize its entire banking sector and have plenty of money to spare.

More Than Manufacturing Another doomsday scenario people like to bandy about is the notion that China will collapse if exports fail or U.S. demand drops.

That's a gross exaggeration and much of the pabulum that you hear is completely wrong. For example, it's commonly cited that exports make up approximately 40% or more of China's GDP. In reality, the figure is between 10%-20% even after decades of explosive growth. The CIA estimate is 18%, and of those exports, the U.S. accounts for a mere 18% of the total.

Fully 75% of the GDP comes from domestic spending and domestic investment. As for the notion of U.S. demand, what China bashers don't realize is that the United States is dangerously close to being completely irrelevant to the Chinese growth model. China will not live and die by U.S. demand. There is always going to be an imbalance between the value-added content of what China imports and what the country exports. China's exports are becoming more and more upscale just as Japan's did, which is probably the same pattern for all developing nations.

This is sort of like the great days of the British Empire - you sell us iron ore and we will sell you nails, hammers and shovels. If the value of an economy goes up, it's only natural that the value of the products it deals with, sells, and consumes will, too. Also, China's trade surplus is shrinking as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), from almost 11% in 2007 to 3%-4% in 2010 to 0.246% ($14.5 billion) of its $5.87 trillion GDP as of November 2011 - further reinforcing the notion that domestic consumption is becoming a bigger force in China's economy even with the slowdown.

Four Ways to Safely Invest in China In the meantime, it's best to look at China within the overall scheme of things. And here are the investments you might want to consider:

1. Buy Yuan. It's still a blocked currency but you can legally get your hands on it using bank deposits, CDs, or exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The official story is that it's being held down. Bull. Since 2005 it's already risen by 23.29%, which is more than the U.S. government wants you to believe. If anything, the dollar is worth too much.

2. Buy commodities. When China's markets grow, so too does global demand for raw materials. The nation has no choice but to buy because it doesn't have many native resources.

3. Buy shares in Chinese companies on Chinese exchanges. One of the things that people miss in their rush to dismiss China is that they're tracking those shares of Chinese companies listed in the United States. That's a mistake. If the U.S. markets take a header, of course Chinese-listed companies on the NYSE and other U.S. exchanges will, too. Still, it's probably best to wait for the dust to settle before wading in.

4. If you're aggressive, you can even try a classic "short" then go reverse long once the markets gain their footing.