Merrill chief sees severe global slowdown (comparable with the period after the 1929 crash)

[RedEarth]

Source: Financial Times

The global economy is entering a slowdown of epic prop­ortions comparable with the period after the 1929 crash, John Thain, chairman and chief executive of Merrill Lynch, warned on Tuesday.


“Right now, the US economy is contracting very rapidly. We are looking at a per­iod of global slowdown,” he told investors. “This is not like 1987 or 1998 or 2001. The contraction going on is bigger than that. We will in fact look back to the 1929 period to see the kind of slow­down we’re seeing now.”

Mr Thain also said the economic problems afflicting the US, where housing prices and other asset values were falling, would wreak havoc across the world.

“There is no such thing as decoupling,” he said, referring to the popular theory that emerging markets could sustain reasonable growth even while the world’s leading economies suffered recessions. “All equity markets are linked. Each individual economy will be more or less affected, depending on reliance on global trade and commerce.”



Read more: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/834ebf5e-aff9-11dd-a795-0000779fd18c.html?nclick_check=1

[Tansy_Gold]

1. You're half a decade late and several trillion dollars short, Mr. Thain

A few of us have been predicting this, based on observing the same reality (maybe) that you have, and now all of a sudden it's like wow, you woke up and had this monumental revelation?

:nopity:

May you and yours rot in hell.



Tansy Gold

[nichomachus]

2. Basically what he's saying is

Thanks for the bailout. We've emptied your treasury -- and now you're screwed. But, at least I've got mine.

[Javaman]

3. "look back to the 1929 period to see the kind of slow­down "

correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't that the depression?

:banghead:

no one wants to tie a depression to the repukes. It would be the nail in their coffin.

Just call it what it is.

[madrchsod]

4. blah blah blah

we are not even close to the 30`s.

[Warren Stupidity]

5. Well now we weren't close to the 30's from 1929 until 1932.

I took almost three years from the crash of 29 to hit bottom. Having bottomed out in 32 it took another nine years or so, and a global war, to climb back out. Stocks didn't fully recover until the 50's. It is when a recession goes deep and long that one has a depression, and you don't know you are in one until you don't get out of it in short order. We've just gotten started. You might want to wait a while before declaring this to be no big deal.