Inflation Myth & The Wonderful World of Deflation with Mark Mobius

AIM Summit Webinar Series

21 April 2021

Speakers: Mark Mobius and Salmaan Jaffery

Mark Mobius, Partner at Mobius Capital Partners and Salmaan Jaffery, Chief Business Development Officer at DIFC discuss:

• What are the implications of your thesis for demographically young emerging markets like DIFC, Dubai and UAE?
• We are a global financial centre overseeing (at last estimate) nearly 500B of investable capital. There are good reasons for savers (and especially retirees) to demand non-zero yields. Is the myth of inflation-danger harming global retirees, causing asset bubbles and leading to more risk taking by managers?
• You mention currencies have been debased by every authority that issued them. This region, including the DIFC, is looking closely at digital assets such as security tokens. Should digital assets underwrite currencies? What impact will crypto currencies have on inflation?
• Specifically, are there enough productivity gains from labor and technology and automation to decrease costs for goods and services? How does this concept apply to agrarian societies (so if most of the world has ploughs and fertilizer, what additional gains are expected to decrease costs)?
• While tech may have zero marginal costs, real economy products and services have a natural limit to cost decreases. Does that suggest there is a deflation floor or a limit to how long deflation can continue?
• While ‘costs’ might be decreasing, market power from monopolies suggest ‘pricing’ may not be. Do you see any danger from consolidation and tech monopolies?