The next financial crisis—yes, we saw it coming.
By Mark Gimein of The Big Money
“Our nation’s system of retirement security is imperiled, headed for a serious train wreck.That wreck is not merely waiting to happen; we are running on a dangerous track that is leading directly to a serious crash that will disable major parts of our retirement system.”
—John Bogle, Feb. 24, 2009
If several years before the financial and credit crisis hit someone had told you that the housing market was preposterously overvalued and derivatives were headed for cataclysm, would it have been worth paying attention to? The answer’s pretty clearly yes, ain’t it? Of course, some of the best minds in finance—from Warren Buffett to Yale housing economist Robert Shiller—did. It’s just that hardly anyone listened.
Now there’s another crisis building. It’s just as big. Again, some of the best thinkers in the financial world are warning about it. (Yes, Buffett’s one of them.) And yet again, as is often the case with gathering storms, most of us are doing our best to ignore the warning signs.