Is It Time to Panic?: Templeton’s Hasenstab

As for China, he doesn't believe a hard landing is in the offing.

"It might happen if they make bad policy decisions, such as poorly thought through fiscal tightening,"he said. "But they're actually softening at the moment, yet not in a way as to cause a bubble."

China is experiencing a "labor constraint" brought on by the country's one-child policy, something Hasenstab called a "global game changer." "Until now, investment has been the main driver of China's growth. Consumption will be an increasingly important driver of their growth going forward. Can they transfer from lower quality double-digit growth to higher quality single-digit nominal GDP growth? That's the real question, as every successful developed country has made that transition."

With those areas addressed, Hasenstab turned to other issues investors should consider—beginning with the possibility of inflation.

"We have this unconventional monetary policy at central banks which are printing money," he warned. "If this is such a good idea, why weren't we doing it all along? Between 25% and 30% of global GDP has been printed at banks, so this is by no means at the fringe. We need to think about the consequences of those actions, which will not be felt as much in the United States of Europe, rather in the rest of the world."

The risk to emerging markets, specifically, is a flood of capital resulting in a "monetary tsunami" in those countries which will present a major challenge. Here in the United States, the debasing of the dollar will lead to an asset base distortion that will put upward pressure on commodities.

But all this risk and uncertainty provide opportunity, he concluded.

"In emerging markets, the tables have turned. Those countries that were once high credit risks, like Indonesia, now look very good, so you should upend your traditional risk models. Also, the United States, Japan and Europe printed money, and don't look so good. But non-leveraged countries in the rest of the world weren't printing money, didn't have an asset bubble and as a consequence didn't have to deleverage. We like to get yield with little or no credit or interest rate risk. This is why Asia currently looks so good."