John Burbank At The Value Investing Congress

John Burbank, of Passport Asset Management spoke at the Value Investing Congress, and said that political contributions in this country are done by just over 28,000 at their full maximum allowed, and if this tiny number was doubled, the political landscape could change drastically. Burbank believes that politics could blow up in the U.S., and he called for the U.S. to be studied like an emerging market. He said that the investment landscape should be viewed in 2 year intervals, and a majority of time and research should be spent focusing on Washington D.C. Burbank went on to say that the state of finances here in America are terrible, and it is time to address government revenue and spending. Burbank said at the Congress that he is short what he called "Huge Debt", governments like U.S., Japan, the U.K., Italy, France and Spain. He advised investors to go long what he called "New Cash", countries like Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong and New Zealand. He went on to say that he holds an 8% position in physical gold, not the Gold ETF GLD, and has been in gold miners, since 2002. Burbank said he has a major investment in a coking coal co. in Mozamibque. He also mentioned that he has some investments in blue chip Western companies, such as Exxon Mobil XOM, Microsoft MSFT Nestle, Kraft KFT, and Dr. Pepper DPS.