John Burbank talks oil, macro with Bloomberg

Noted hedge fund manager, John Burbank of Passport Capital talks oil, investing in Saudi Arabia, stockpicking in 2012, and global macro in this recent Bloomberg TV interview. 

A few key points from Burbank's interview: 

1. Oil prices are up 16% YTD, which hurts the average oil-dependent consumer (chart). Burbank feels global QE operations and "liquidity" boosts are pushing up oil prices. If gold goes up 10-20%, it doesn't cause problems for consumers the way rising oil prices do.

2. Rising oil prices are benefiting Saudi Arabia. Passport now has 15% of its capital in the Saudi stock market, a country which is slowly opening up to foreign investors. 

Passport started investing in Saudi Arabia in 2008 (through notes & swaps) and Burbank feels the potential there is similar to India in the 2003-2004 period. Here's a chart of India's SENSEX over the 1998-2012 period.

3. Liquidity is coming into the market because "things are really bad", not because things are good. Burbank feels that confidence in central banks is misplaced. The average Westerner's standard of living is not improving; rising prices and stagnant incomes are squeezing them.

4. 2012 is a stockpicker's market, a good year to be long or short certain sectors and individual names. 

Burbank is not banking on a sustained global rally. Instead, he's looking to invest in stocks that can outperform regardless of growth rates in the overall economy. Biotech is one area that he finds promising at this time. 

Enjoy the interview, and if you'd like to hear more from Burbank and other macro stars, check out the interviews in the related posts section below.

Related articles and posts: 

1. Must hear interview with John Burbank of Passport Capital.

2. Michael Burry talks "Big Short", America's future at Vanderbilt.

Finance Trends: The Best of 2010

We're wrapping up some of your favorite posts (and mine) for this Finance Trends "Best of 2010" features edition.

You'll find key interviews with leading businessmen and investors, along with the best of this year's posts emphasizing the strong trends and events that are shaping our country, our investment markets, and our world.

Without further ado, here are some key posts highlighting the big picture trends we've witnessed in 2010, some of which may continue to unfold in 2011 and beyond.

1. On a Return to Classical Education. Your educationally-deprived editor muses over the benefits of a Classical education, and how such a foundation in thinking might help us as investors and as citizens of the world.

2. Marc Faber: Final Crisis Yet to Come. Wonderful presentation by Marc at this year's Mises Circle in NYC, offering a crucial take on US monetary policy and the likely outcomes of the Fed's "quantitative easing" experiments. Video and presentation slides included.

3. Niall Ferguson on Fiscal Crises and Imperial Collapse. Must hear presentation from Ferguson offers a historical overview of government debt crises. Highly relevant back in May and only more so now that the developed nations' sovereign debt crisis continues to unfold here at year-end 2010.

4. LTCM and the Lessons of Failure. Thoughts on hedge fund collapses (and fund manager resurrections), the money manager merry-go-round, risk management, and the dangers of overconfidence.

5. Must Hear Interview with John Burbank of Passport Capital. Part of our series on global macro investors and hedge fund managers, this excellent discussion with John Burbank comes to us via Benzinga podcast.

6. Michael Burry: An Up & Coming Macro Star? An in-depth look at Michael Burry's gradual transition from a US stock-focused value investor to an international, global macro investor.

Includes an unedited transcript of Bloomberg TV's interview with Burry, in which he offers his views on the economy, investing, and his famous subprime short trade.

7. Jim Grant, John Hathaway and Peter Munk sit down with Charlie Rose to discuss gold as money, the causes of the recent final crisis, and likely outcomes of Fed and government intervention in the markets.

8. John Allison on "Leadership and Values". The former CEO and Chairman of BB&T bank speaks to Virginia's Darden School of Business on the importance of adhering to a sound ethical framework and engaging in "win-win" business transactions. Excellent talk on the spirit of true capitalism and personal responsibility.

That's all for 2010. Please join us for more in 2011, as we explore the coming year's macro investing themes and future economic events.

You can keep up with us in the meantime through our real-time updates on Twitter and StockTwits or via the Finance Trends RSS blog feed. Have a Happy New Year!

*Photo credit: Floor of the New York Stock Exchange via LOC.gov.

Marketfolly's notes from Value Investing Congress

Jay at Marketfolly is currently at work providing notes from the Value Investing Congress in New York (Update: see also, notes from VIC - day 2).

Some of the well known speakers at this event include Kyle Bass, John Burbank, David Einhorn, Mohnish Pabrai, and Lee Ainslie, among others in the hedge fund and investment management world. These investing all-stars will be presenting their views on the markets and the global economy to the VIC audience, while sharing some of their current investing ideas.

You can check out Marketfolly's continually updated notes at the link above. In addition, Jay has posted some recent notes from the Ira Sohn West Conference, including some big picture thoughts from John Burbank of Passport Capital regarding the US and its current investment climate.

If you'd like to hear more from John Burbank on the theme of "US as an emerging market economy", please check out this excellent (and rare) interview with Burbank on Benzinga's radio podcast. You'll also find more key interviews with VIC speakers and VIC coverage in our related posts section below.

Related articles and posts:

1. CNBC interviews Kyle Bass, Alan Fournier - Finance Trends.

2. Must hear interview with John Burbank (Passport Capital) - Finance Trends.

3. Live VIC coverage via Twitter search - Twitter.com

Must hear interview with John Burbank of Passport Capital

Earlier in the week, we posed this question: who are the top global macro investors of today?

We started on the road to answering that question first by posing it to you (we're always interested to hear about up & coming investors from our many industry-savvy readers), then followed up by spotlighting Michael Burry's emergence as a global macro investor.

Today we shift gears by sharing an excellent Benzinga interview with an established star of the macro hedge fund world, John Burbank of Passport Capital.

You may already know that Burbank and Passport were thrust into the limelight when, like Michael Burry, their 2007 returns were boosted by short positions in the subprime housing market.

What you'll hear in this interview (transcripts: part 1, part 2) is how Burbank got his start in trading and investing and how he arrived at his global macro approach. There are too many interesting points to outline here, but be sure to listen to the full interview to hear his insights on medium-to-longer term thinking on big picture trends and the market's response to these type of events.

Enjoy the discussion, as this is the type of interview you will certainly not hear on most of the "leading" cable business channels. There is definitely a lot of food for thought here, not only on macro investing but also regarding some of the issues currently affecting America and the world.