Marc Faber, publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom Report, isn't too impressed with central bank easing programs around the world.

"If I could find a way to short central banks, that is what I would do," he told Barron's.

"This is the year that people will lose confidence in central banks, mostly because of the failure of Abenomics in Japan."

The dollar hit a seven-year high against the yen in December and traded at 117.04 yen Friday.

So how can investors bet against central banks?

"One way is to go long gold," Faber said. "I recommend buying physical gold, silver, and platinum. If you are looking for bigger gains, I suggest either mining-company stocks or the Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners exchange-traded fund."

When gold rose 15 percent in the first half of last year, the Junior Gold Miners ETF jumped more than 40 percent. Gold traded at $1,279.20 an ounce Friday.

Elsewhere, U.S. stocks are "vulnerable to a sell-off," Faber said.

Meanwhile, U.K. hedge fund heavyweight Crispin Odey, founder of Odey Asset Management, is worried about economic weakness throughout the world.

Major economies are on the precipice of a recession, he wrote in a letter to shareholders obtained by the (London) Daily Mail.  "‘This down-cycle is likely to be remembered in 100 years, when we hope it won’t be rated for ‘How good it looks for its age!’"

And that, of course, is bad news for stocks. "Equity markets will get devastated," Odey said, making this the best time to short equities since the 2008 financial crisis.

Turmoil in financial markets, including oil's plunge to 5½-year lows, and China's "faltering economy" will help spark the global downturn, he said. And Odey doesn't expect the European Central Bank's quantitative easing program to save the eurozone economy.

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