Soros: The Recession Will Last Forever

If the G20 is nothing but a talking shop then he thinks we are heading for meltdown. “That could push the world into depression. It’s really a make-or-break occasion. That’s why it’s so important.” The chances of a depression are, he says, “quite high” – even if that is averted, the recession will last a long time. “Look, we are not going back to where we came from. In that sense it’s going to last for ever.”

My Comments: Weather it "last forever" or not it seems like a safe statement that we aren't going back to the way things were.

Like Warren Buffett, he thinks that the complex financial instruments used by the banks were economic weapons of mass destruction. If anything he expected the tipping point to come earlier. “Everybody who realised that this was unsustainable expected it to collapse much sooner,” he says. “It is so devastating exactly because it took so long.”

My Comments: This is true with any boom bust cycle. The bigger the boom the bigger the bust. It took close to two years for the housing bust to officially bring stocks down. This delayed reaction is why its so hard to fully comprehend the problem. I still see a lot of people out to restaurants and malls in my area. Just last weekend I went out to eat and waited 45 minutes. How long will it take for the multiple busts to effectively force people from living the lives that they are accustomed to?

Full article here.