Worst of slump yet to come, says economist

[Craftsman]

Ann Pettifor is a member of a select club — the seers who saw it all coming. Now the economist, who predicted the credit crunch as far back as 2003, believes that the worst is yet to come unless there is radical reform of the financial system.

Six years ago she parodied the International Monetary Fund’s annual economic forecast with her own — The Real World Economic Outlook. Then, in 2006, her book The Coming First World Debt Crisis, warned that rich countries were heading for a debt crisis that would overshadow anything seen in the developing world. Both were ridiculed.

With the British and world economies languishing in the worst recession since the Great Depression and with once-mighty banks reliant on government life support, she could be forgiven for being a little smug. Not a bit of it: “No, being Cassandra is not something I wish for. I hate this role of being a gloomer and doomer, as I’m an optimist by nature. But I am very pessimistic now.”

She is dismayed that politicians have failed to seize the opportunity that the crisis has given them to embark on tough reform of the banking system. Stock markets have rebounded and house prices have stopped falling, but Ms Pettifor fears that politicians and households have started to relax prematurely.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article6816287.ece

[Tansy_Gold]

1. She might wanta borrow my rubber stamp

[Craftsman]

2. Yepper

[AnneD]

6. Her cousins .....

are on the SWT. We believe her and have a similar consensus. Pass the stamp over here.

[HughBeaumont]

3. It's gonna look like THIS:

Better get drowning.

[troubledamerican]

7. Snark bookmarked for the magical recovery

[OwnedByFerrets]

4. Thom Hartmann has been predicting it for about 9 months now.

That our troubles have just begun.

[truedelphi]

5. She may have been a Cassandra, but she seems a bit naive to me.

She is dismayed that politicians have failed to seize the opportunity that the crisis has given them to embark on tough reform of the banking system. Stock markets have rebounded and house prices have stopped falling, but Ms Pettifor fears that politicians and households have started to relax prematurely.

“The economy is no longer in free fall and, as a result, there’s an enormous amount of complacency from politicians, in particular, about what will happen next. I believe politicians have given away the opportunity to restructure the banks and reconfigure the system...

They did not go and give anything away, Ann.

The appointments and the actions of those appointees of "our" new Administration confirm the lyrics of the old, classic "Who" song. And the Bailout Trillions were NOT given away, they were bought and paid for.

"Guess who" will not have to worry at all about getting a full eight years.