Marc Friedrich

Marc Friedrich (* 1975 in Waiblingen ) is a German non-fiction author in the field of economics and finance.

Life

Friedrich studied international business administration at Aalen University . He then worked for various companies in Argentina , USA and Great Britain . In 2001 he experienced national bankruptcy in Argentina and its consequences.

In 2009 he founded Friedrich & Weik Vermögenssicherung UG with his partner Matthias Weik . They hold lectures together on topics such as Industry 4.0 , digitization , cryptocurrency or blockchain . Friedrich and Weik are authors at Telepolis and Cashkurs, a platform founded by Dirk Müller . They also work as experts at Focus Online and are listed as speakers for the Handelsblatt .

The two partners have been active in the investment fund business since 2017 . Together they run the "Friedrich & Weik Wertefonds".

Real asset fund

Friedrich and Weik assume that the paper age is coming to an end and the age of real assets would begin. Because you can't print real assets like money, and real assets have always survived crises, they founded Germany's first open “real asset fund”.

Positions

economy

According to Friedrich and Weik, the financial system only has a mathematically limited lifespan and has been "in intensive care since 2008". The politicians would not dare to oppose the monetary and financial system and it would be artificially kept alive. This would be indebted by more and more money that the ECB pumps into the system and the crash would thus be postponed into the future. Compared to the global economic crisis , the current situation is even more fragile and uncertain. So today there would be a lot more debt and the money would be unregulated in the system.

In a mirror interview with the economist Peter Bofinger at the beginning of April 2020 and on the occasion of the corona pandemic , he recommended: “The system as a whole is ailing, but you don't dare to pull the plug. I would let the patient fall asleep peacefully. ... Why should one keep a patient alive who is only in pain? ... "

politics

Friedrich and Weik describe themselves as democrats and Europeans and think that the single market is a great achievement, but that the euro divides Europe.

reception

Classification and criticism

Various business journalists classify Friedrich as a "crash prophet". According to Werner Grundlehner from the NZZ, there are five typical characteristics for such crash prophets, including Friedrich: “Your arguments are simple and at first glance logical; their prophecies are part of their business model; in professional circles nobody takes them seriously; they are media stars; their solutions are seemingly simple. "Grundlehner compares this to a strategy in roulette:" I bet on the green zero every time and mostly lose. But when the ball stops at zero, I throw a huge hello and tell everyone about the thirty-fivefold increase in the stake. Numerous visitors to the casino will remember me as a successful gambler. ”According to Harald Freiberger from the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the tone of such crash prophets, including Friedrich, would be“ illiberal ”. There is also “a proximity to right-wing populism and conspiracy theories, sometimes also to nationalism”. Marcel Fratzscher from the German Institute for Economic Research accused Friedrich of “demagoguery and black painting”, his theses lacking any scientific basis. The journalist Andreas Pflüger writes in the Stuttgarter Zeitung that Friedrich and Weik are specialists, who back up their claims with data, numbers and facts. Likewise, large parts of their forecasts have already come true, such as "the zero interest rate policy of the European Central Bank, penalty interest on savings accounts, the guaranteed interest rate reduction for life insurance, Brexit, Donald Trump's election as US president, the self-dismantling of the mainstream parties or the rise of extreme political forces."

Fact checks

In a fact check in the news magazine Focus, Markus Neumann came to the conclusion that the predictions of the “crash prophets” Weik and Friedrich “do not stand up to closer examination”. In 2020 he examined the first book by the two authors from 2012. There they claimed, for example, that a crash should take place within 2 years. This was not the case 7 years later. They testified that the national debt would continue to rise. According to the International Monetary Fund, however, these fell. They also predicted significantly higher inflation rates in the euro zone; in fact, the inflation rate fell. They advised against buying index funds and called them "madness". In fact, investors with MSCI World index funds were able to achieve a return of 170 percent in this time. By contrast, those who invested their money in gold, as recommended by the authors, lost 11.5 percent of their capital.

Publications

• The biggest raid in history , Bastei Lübbe, Cologne 2012, ISBN 978-3-404-60804-1 .
• The crash is the solution : Why the final collapse is coming and how you can save your wealth , Lübbe, 2015, ISBN 978-3-404-60858-4 .
• Capital error: How our prosperity is destroyed and why we need a new economic way of thinking , Eichborn, Cologne 2016, ISBN 978-3-8479-0605-6 .
• Otherwise it'll pop !: Why we have to radically rethink business and politics , Eichborn, Cologne 2017, ISBN 978-3-8479-0634-6 .
• The biggest crash of all time: economy, politics, society. How you can still protect your money now , Eichborn, Cologne 2019, ISBN 978-3-8479-0669-8 .

Web links

• Marc Friedrich in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Interview - “Capitalism in itself is not bad”. Retrieved March 29, 2020 . 
2. ^ Marc Friedrich - 1 book - Perlentaucher. Retrieved March 29, 2020 . 
3. ^ Matthias Weik and Marc Friedrich. Retrieved March 29, 2020 . 
4. ↑ Dirk Müller: Matthias Weik and Marc Friedrich. Retrieved March 29, 2020 . 
5. ↑ FOCUS Online: Experts - Finances. Retrieved March 29, 2020 . 
6. ^ Friedrich and Weik - Handelsblatt speaker agency. Retrieved March 29, 2020 . 
7. ↑ Is the value fund worth the money? ARD , January 17, 2020, accessed on January 17, 2020 . 
8. ↑ First real asset fund in Sachwertmagazin
9. ↑ FOCUS Online: Crash prophets warn: global economy is racing towards the abyss. Retrieved March 29, 2020 . 
10. ↑ Der Spiegel from April 4, 2020, pp. 18 to 20: Spiegel controversy.
11. ↑ Bestselling authors Matthias Weik and Marc Friedrich :. Retrieved March 29, 2020 . 
12. ↑ The scam of the crash prophets in faz.net
13. ↑ crash prophets are always right in welt.de
14. ↑ The fear business in nzz.ch
15. ^ Crash prophets in the crash test in sueddeutsche.de
16. ↑ Andreas Pflüger: Friedrich and Weik would have liked to be wrong in Stuttgarter-Zeitung.de November 11, 2019, accessed January 11, 2020
17. ↑ Markus Neumann: Crash prophets Weik and Friedrich: Your theses in check. In: Focus Online. January 10, 2020, accessed January 11, 2020 .