Prepare Yourselves for the Great Deflation?

from CNBC

Marc Faber, publisher of The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report, told CNBC on Monday that investors are asking the wrong question about when the Federal Reserve will taper its massive bond-buying program. They should be asking when the central bank will be increasing it, he argued.

"The question is not tapering. The question is at what point will they increase the asset purchases to say $150 [billion] , $200 [billion], a trillion dollars a month," Faber said in a " Squawk Box " interview.

The Fed-which is currently buying $85 billion worth of bonds every month-will hold its October meeting next week to deliberate the future of its asset purchases known as quantitative easing .


Faber has been predicting so-called "QE infinity" because "every government program that is introduced under urgency and as a temporary measure is always permanent." He also said, "The Fed has boxed itself into a position where there is no exit strategy."

The continuation of Fed bond-buying has helped support stocks, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow Jones Global Indexes: .DJI) and S&P 500 Index (^GSPC) are coming off two straight weeks of gains, highlighted by record highs for the S&P.

While there may be little inflation in the U.S., Faber said there's been incredible asset inflation. "We are the bubble. We have a colossal asset bubble in the world [and] a leverage or a debt bubble."

Back in April 2012, Faber said the world will face "massive wealth destruction" in which "well to-do people will lose up to 50 percent of their total wealth."

In Monday's "Squawk" appearance, he said that could still happen but possibly from higher levels because of the "asset bubble" caused by the Fed.

"One day this asset inflation will lead to a deflationary collapse one way or the other. We don't know yet what will cause it," he said.