Max Otte

The PI Global Value Fund (WKN: A0NE9G), founded mid-March 2008 and managed to date by Otte, achieved a 38% performance by 28 April 2010, outperforming the DAX by 38 percent, the MSCI World by 33 percent and the Euro Stoxx 50 by more than 60%. Otte invests according to the “Reinheitsgebot” (German purity requirements) in quality stocks, bonds and physical gold.

In April 2010 Otte called for the Southern European countries to leave the eurozone. Otte, despite being an independent fund manager, is in favor of strong regulation of financial markets. In his opinion, sufficient equity capital should strengthen liability and constitute the basis for a return to sensible behaviour of banks in a market economy. He supported the German government’s decision in 2010 to prohibit naked short selling.

Max Otte was one of the first economists to recommend nationalizing Hypo Real Estate (a German bank), long before politicians. In March and April 2009 he strongly recommended the purchase of stocks. Otte is sometimes called the “crash prophet” – a title he dislikes. In November 2009, he was voted “Money Manager of the Year” by the readers of the stock market journal Börse Online, winning 10,000 votes from a total of 24,000. In the same month, he confirmed that the value of (European) stocks were not yet too expensive. He defended his title as “Money Manager of the Year” in 2010 and obtained more than half of the votes, competing against 10 other money managers.

After the publication of his book Der Crash kommt, Max Otte became more widely known. The book begins with the preface from the first edition in 2006: “I can’t tell you whether the crash will come in 2008. Perhaps it will come already in 2007, or even later in 2009 or 2010. Human behavior – for that is what the outbreak of a major global economic crisis is about – cannot be predicted with mathematic precision, even if some “crisis prophets” will always try to do so. Some of the strongest indications seem to point to the year 2010, others to the end of 2007. However, if I have correctly understood the signals coming from the world economy, then it will have to crash – and with an enormous impact.” Otte sees himself as a political economist in the tradition of Friedrich List, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Werner Sombart, Alexander Rüstow and Wilhelm Röpke, and is inspired by the Austrian school of economic thought.

In his book A Rising Middle Power? (New York, 2000) Max Otte examines German foreign policy in recent years. He focuses in particular on whether the increase in power following the reunification has led to a shift in the style of the Federal Republic of Germany’s foreign policy. Alongside a political economic analysis of the power potential of the Federal Republic of Germany, the book contains three case studies: Germany and European unification/introduction of the Euro, Germany and military interventions abroad and the eastward enlargement of the EU. Ottes surprising conclusion is that, whilst Germany’s power has grown, the demands on the reunified country have grown even more strongly. Germany diplomacy continues to be typical of a middle power, aiming at reconciliation.

Max Otte obtained his Abitur (university entrance qualification) at Albert-Schweitzer-Gymnasium Plettenberg in 1983. After having received a doctorate degree from Princeton University in 1997, with his thesis later published as “A Rising Middle Power – German Foreign Policy in Transformation” by St. Martin´s Press, and having worked as an M&A consultant, Otte was Assistant Professor at Boston University from 1998 to 2000. Otte became widely known in 2008 after the financial crisis, because his book Der Crash kommt, first published in 2006, had predicted a large-scale financial crisis caused by U.S.-subprime. As a result, he has been known as the “guru” of the crisis after the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2007.

Max Otte (born Matthias Otte; * Oct. 7, 1964 in Plettenberg, Germany) is a German-American economist, fund manager, and conservative political activist. Otte is a member of the German Christian Democrats (CDU) and the chairperson of the advisory board of the Desiderius-Erasmus-Foundation. He obtained his Ph.D. from Princeton University. Max Otte the founding sponsor of the Human Roots Award.