Liam Halligan on the Dangers of Quantitative Easing ("QE")

Since its implementation by the BOE at the height of the financial crisis, QE has been a controversial policy to say the least. We at GreenWorld have always felt that QE has the potential to cause inflation - if not now, then down the road.  For those who share the same worry, there was a fantastic column by the Telegraph's Liam Halligan on the dangers of QE.  Mr. Halligan writes:

"Future inflation, not disinflation, is the problem the UK faces. For now, most of the QE “proceeds” are sitting on the balance sheets of banks pretending to be solvent...What happens to inflation when that massive increase in base money is leant out? What happens when the mask slips and the markets focus on “currency debasement”, which then pushes up imports prices as sterling falls?" 

Mr. Halligan is spot-on, the danger is indeed real.  If you are at all interested in this subject, do read the entire article here.  Once you read it, ask yourself, what type of investments would you want to protect against any inflation created by QE, whether in the UK or elsewhere?  As we noted in our previous post, the best kind of inflation hedge investments, are so-called "hard assets" that will rise in value along with inflation.  If you are interested in a hard asset that pays good current income, hedges against inflation and also has tremendous value, consider farmland investments.  We recently wrote an article on Technorati on how farmland investing is now increasingly accessible for individual retail investors. We would welcome the opportunity to discuss the following farmland investment options with you further - feel free to contact us at info@greenworldbvi.com.

Farmland investment in Europe

Farmland investment in Australia

Farmland investment in Africa

The Alternative Investor

Do You Need to Hedge Against Inflation with Your Investments? Consider "Hard Asset" Investments

There are two schools of thought on this question of inflation. Some believe that because economies are still weak, that there is no risk of inflation in the immediate future. The other view point is that because central banks have created so much new money through QE (Quantitative Easing) that some kind of inflation hedge is necessary in case inflation suddenly accelerates.

We ate Green World do not claim to be experts on broader macro-economics, but whatever your viewpoint on the risk of inflation one must admit that it is at least a distinct possibility. If you agree, then one good option is to invest in so-called "hard assets" or "real assets". These are assets that are not financial instruments like stocks and bonds, but assets that cannot be printed or created by central banks. Whilst many people look to Gold for this, Gold pays no income and has no inherent economic value. We prefer hard assets that pay regular income and also have an inherent economic value such as farmland investments or timber investments. On farmland investment, we believe that we are currently in an agricultural "supercycle" of a growing population and dwindling arable farmland which will make ag commodity prices continue to rise.

For farmland, it is well worth it to consider Australian farmland investments. Australian farmland is some of the cheapest in the developed world, it pays high current income and there is a ready made customer for its production in China. For those partial to forestry, bamboo investments pay very high current income and the market for bamboo markets is expected to double in size by 2015.

Either one of these options will give you both high current income as well as an excellent inflation hedge. Feel free to contact us at info@greenworldbvi.com for more information.

New Carbon Credit Investment in Australia

We just published this article on Technorati describing the new Australian carbon law and the resulting opportunity it has opened up for investors in carbon credit investments.