An economist has doubled down on his dire prediction that America will suffer a stock market crash that would dwarf that of the 2008 financial crisis.
Harry Dent first warned last December that an “all” stock market bubble would burst, leading to the “biggest crash of our lifetimes.”
“If I’m right, it will be the biggest crash of our lifetime, most of which will happen in 2024,” he previously told Fox Digital.
Since he predicted the crash would occur in May, critics who accused him of being “crazy” appear to be right.
But in a new interview, the Harvard Business School alum said he stands by his claims. He says the benchmark S&P 500, for example, will plummet 86 percent.
However, he does admit that the bottom of the market is now more likely to occur between early and mid-2025.
Economist Harry Dent has reiterated his warning that the stock market will collapse far worse than during the 2008 financial crisis
Dent is an economic analyst and best-selling financial author.
He reportedly accurately predicted the asset price bubble in Japan – which burst in 1991 – and also the long recession that followed. He also warned about the US housing bubble, which burst in 2007.
Dent claims the crash will be caused by overvalued markets and excessive stimulus spending, which he says will cause a much worse recession than other economists have predicted. Tens of millions would lose their jobs.
A crash would also impact U.S. retirement accounts. Most have at least a portion of their 401(K) and individual retirement accounts invested in the Dow Jones, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.
The worst crash in many people’s lives would mean it would have to surpass the hardships felt after the Great Recession of 2008 – the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
‘From 1925 to 1929 it was a natural bubble. There was no stimulus behind it, an artificial stimulus in itself. So this is new. This has never happened before’ Dent said Tuesday.
‘What do you do if you want to cure a hangover? You drink more. And that’s what they did.
“Flooding the economy with extra money forever could actually improve the overall economy in the long run. But we won’t know until we see this bubble burst,” he added.
‘And again, this bubble has existed for fourteen years. Instead of most bubbles [going] five to six, it is stretched higher and longer. So you should expect a bigger crash than between 2008 and 2009.”
US stocks ended May with gains as the Nasdaq rose 6.9 percent, the S&P 500 4.8 percent and the Dow Jones 2.3 percent.
But Dent claimed: ‘I think we’ll see the S&P down 86 percent from its peak, and the Nasdaq down 92 percent.
‘A hero stock like Nvidia, as good as it is, and it’s a great company, [goes] a drop of 98 percent. Boy, this is over.”
‘We’ve never seen it before [the] The government maintains a totally artificial bubble for a decade and a half, and look what happens next.
“But I can tell you that there hasn’t been a bubble in history — and this one is much bigger and longer — that hasn’t ended badly, period.”
People will be “most affected” by the property crash, which he says will see house prices fall to 2012 prices.
Dent took aim at those who accused him of stoking fear and tension among Americans.
“I just say what I see and honestly I don’t care,” he said. “If people don’t like it, because you [have] have to choose: are you going to tell the truth, or are you going to make people happy?’
‘They call me a ‘permabear’. This is absolute, uncategorized BS’
He added: “If you look at it from history and take a step back, nothing is so obvious.
“Many other bubbles in history just don’t have the steepness or the size of it.
‘Why? We never realized the power that central banks can have to just print money out of thin air.”
Dent claimed last December that an ‘everything’ bubble would burst, leading to the ‘biggest crash of our lifetimes’, with consequences felt in May
But critics accused him of being “crazy” and scaremongering with his chilling predictions
Dent has warned people to get their money out of the stock market, ahead of the ‘bubble of all bubbles’
But Dent doesn’t believe an impending crash is necessarily a bad thing.
He said: ‘The big crash will be at the rear.
“This will flush all this surplus out of the markets, get the markets back to where they should be, so that the millennial generation can have a boom period that is healthier and where they can invest their savings for retirement.”
The economist has warned people to get their money out of the stock market before the ‘bubble of all bubbles’ arrives.
In recent weeks, top bankers and even a prominent former CEO have issued chilling warnings about the U.S. economy.
Jamie Dimon, head of the world’s largest bank, JPMorgan Chase, said this in May the worst outcome for the American economy would be ‘stagflation’. This is when inflation continues to rise, but unemployment is high and growth is slowing.
Economists consider stagflation, last seen in the US in the 1970s, as worse than a recession. It would drive down stock prices, hitting 401(K)s and other retirement savings.