Weiss: Worst of the Credit Crunch Ahead
Dan Weil
Friday, April 25, 2008
Investment guru Martin Weiss has long been warning of an economic meltdown. Now his warnings are gaining some steam as negative economic numbers make headlines.
Weiss, who heads Weiss Research and publishes the Safe Money Report from Jupiter, Fla., maintains that the credit crisis is getting worse.
He also believes that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has completely mishandled the crisis, and that the U.S. economy will suffer its worst recession since World War II. He has choice words for Bernanke's predecessor, too.
"I think Ben Bernanke should be thrown out on his rear end like bouncers [throw customers] from a bar," Weiss tells MoneyNews. "And Alan Greenspan should have been thrown out like that, too."
Both mistakenly cut interest rates, Weiss argues. Greenspan's rate cuts sparked the housing bubble of 2001-06, while Bernanke's cuts amount to "trying to push the consequences of the bubble under the rug," according to Weiss.
He believes the economy entered recession early this year.