Presidential election polls notwithstanding, President Trump’s multipronged America-first policies are viewed by government and corporate leaders around the world as a calling card of investment prowess and safety, according to money manager Mark Mobius.
“Overseas, people say ‘Trump is doing the right thing. We know where he’s coming from. You have a strong president. He’s fighting for America and that’s good for us too.’ If they believe that Trump is helping us get stronger, it gives investors around the world a sense of safety,” said Mobius, founding partner of Mobius Capital Partners, speaking to a crowd of broker-dealer executives at the annual meeting of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (Sifma) in Washington, D.C., today.
Just yesterday, Mobius remarked, Trump met with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at the White House to “protest” U.S. interest rates that he considers too high relative to other developed countries.
After the Powell meeting, Trump tweeted: “In fact, our rates should be lower than all others (we are the U.S.). Too strong a Dollar hurting manufacturers & growth!” The meeting also included Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.
“I can see where Trump is coming from,” Mobius said. “Europe has negative rates, but even with those lower rates, the U.S. dollar is still king. They see us as a place of safety. That includes the Chinese leaders, who have homes here and send their children to school here.”
On the trade front, “Trump is moving toward unilateral agreements and away from multilateral trade agreements because it always ends up we pay. You’re going to see more and more of that. It is interesting to see other countries adopting that lead, like South Korea.
It’s not a breakdown, but it is definitely a marked change, he said.
“It comes back to rule of law—the chance to be treated fairly,” Mobius said. “The dollar probably won’t stay where it is, but it’s all relative.”
Lack of rule of law and risk management is what scares investors away, said Mobius, who answered a question from Financial Advisor about what the impeachment proceedings have taught him about investing in Ukraine and the country’s corruption.
“Ukraine has a real corruption problem,” he said. “We were going to invest in Ukraine, but we gave up because we figured we really couldn’t be safe.”