Labeled overly pessimistic for years, a few Wall Street prognosticators became the oracles of 2008 by correctly predicting the unwinding of the global economy, the Wall Street Journal reports. The doomsayers correctly anticipated bank failures, stock market declines, and the housing market collapse of the second half of 2008. As for 2009, don’t expect things to get any rosier, they say.
Some of their 2008 predictions were less than perfect—one predicted the collapse of the US dollar—but they continue to foresee disaster in 2009. Treasury bonds are overpriced, the stock market still faces precipitous declines, and massive inflation and higher interest rates will scare away foreign investment while pushing consumers to save rather than spend. Oh, and the dollar is going to crash.
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