When asked about the confidence that is currently boosting the markets, Rickards’ remarked, “First off, I don’t put a lot of stock in confidence reports… There is a high correlation between consumer confidence and the stock market. The reason consumers are confident is because the stock market is going up. As soon as the stock market goes down, consumer confidence is going to plunge. So what could cause it? Imagine that snow is building up on a mountainside. You could look at it and see its unstable and know it is going to collapse. All it takes is one snowflake to come along, start a slide and disturb others while gaining momentum. The next thing you know the whole avalanche is coming down. Who do you blame? The snowflake or the system as a whole?”
“What I am doing is looking at the system as a whole. It is the instability of the system that we need to be concerned about… There are lots of things that could cause it. That’s not the important aspect to focus on. My advice to investors is get gold now. Don’t go all in, I recommend 10% of your investable assets. That’s not 50% or 100%. That’s your insurance if everything I am saying is wrong, you won’t get hurt with that slice of gold… But if things do get bad and fall apart you’ll be very happy to have it.”
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