The Meb Faber Show · Friday, September 25, 2026
David Iben argues that US markets are the most expensive they have ever been by almost any metric, driven by a 'huge bifurcation' where assets are seen as either perfect or terrible. He contrasts this with global markets, which he believes offer better value, citing historical examples like Japan in the 1980s and current opportunities in countries like Ukraine for farmland.
“The US markets, the most expensive it's ever been by almost any metric you can name. But even more so than 99, uh, there's this huge bifurcation. Yeah, people are really binary. Things are perfect, or they're god awful and shouldn't be owned.”
“Where in reality, there's a lot of gray out there. Uh, and so that's, yeah, we we think what we do for a living is praise businesses. Figure out what it's worth, and we risk it just for the country there in, or the debt they have, or the management they have.”
“Years ago, Japan was considered the enemy from World War II, and guys like John Templeton or respected was able to put, I think a third of his portfolio or more in Japan when it was trading three times earnings because people hated it. But by 1989, it had gone up so much that it was half the world index, just on one island.”