Is a massive market meltdown on the way? A particularly gloomy investment advisor says it’s just a matter of time. Marc Faber, author of the Gloom, Boom and Doom Report, warned CNBC this past week that markets are going to go into meltdown soon, so expect stocks to lose 20% of their value. Faber didn’t attribute this to the fiscal cliff — in fact, he doesn’t believe there’ll even be a fiscal cliff.
“The market is going down because corporate profits will begin to disappoint, the global economy will hardly grow next year or even contract, and that is the reason why stocks, from the highs of September of 1,470 on the S&P, will drop at least 20 percent, in my view,” he told CNBC.
He also pointed to poor quarterly earnings from larger businesses like McDonald’s, Apple, Google, and Amazon, claiming the poor performance would hurt investor sentiment.
‘What we need is pain’
Faber pointed to politicians’ lack of will to tackle the U.S. budget and said it will take a lot of pain for the country to get back on track financially.
“There will be pain and there will be very substantial pain. The question is do we take less pain now through austerity or risk a complete collapse of society in five to 10 years’ time?” he said to CNBC.
It gets even more gloomy. Faber also said real recovery will only come from a complete market implosion. For Faber, it’s not a matter of “if” but “when” that implosion of markets happens.
What do you think about Faber’s predictions? Do they hold any weight? Or is he being overly pessimistic? Let us know how you feel in the comments below.
