David Dreman and Marc Faber, investors with collective experience of more than 60 years, couldn't disagree more on the Federal Reserve's decision to reduce interest rates between meetings.
Dreman, who oversees $22 billion as founder and chairman of Dreman Value Management LLC, said in an Aug. 20 interview that "the financial markets needed calming, and the Fed's decision was an excellent first step." The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report's Faber said policymakers will "create an additional set of problems" with a rate cut that was "not justified." Faber gained fame by correctly predicting the stock-market crash in 1987.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index has climbed 3.1 percent since the Fed reduced the rate it charges banks by 0.5 percentage point to 5.75 percent on Aug. 17. The central bank made the cut, the first between scheduled meetings since 2001, in an effort to restore confidence amid a global financial crisis created by losses on U.S. subprime mortgages.
Dreman, 71, and Faber, 61, have held divergent opinions before. Dreman, who's based in Jersey City, New Jersey, said on Aug. 13 the U.S. stock market is "pretty solid." On the same day, Faber, founder and managing director of Marc Faber Ltd. in Hong Kong, predicted a "colossal recession."