Great combination. Hyperkinetic Hong Kong scribe Nury Vittachi, author of 10 books and countless newspaper and magazine columns, and Marc Faber, "Dr. Doom," congenital contrarian, pundit and market analyst. Few writers could hope to capture the flash and flair of the pony-tailed, bar-hopping, history-minded investment adviser; Vittachi does the trick. (He also makes it clear that the two are pals; the cover notes this is an "authorized profile of the man and his ideas.")
Faber is a fascinating guy. Apart from the rebellious, devil-may-care persona he cultivates, he is literate, honest and right (most of the time). He is as inclined to rap on history -- one of the longest chapters in the book is on the fate of great cities, the vast majority of which have vanished -- as market fundamentals. More accurately, Faber uses history, and not just market-oriented stuff, to make his judgments about investments.
"Faber is more likely to turn up to a meeting with a picture showing the number of rings in a recently felled oak: Nature's own long-term record of weather conditions that could yield useful information on crop futures. His predictions are less likely to be underpinned by 40-day moving averages or this quarter's leading indicators than by examination of the fortunes of preindustrial cities in the 15th or 16th century. His understanding of how organizations grow and acquire their competitors is more likely to be illustrated with the record of a recent military skirmish than a textbook flow-chart of acquisition procedures," explains Vittachi.