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“2000 showed you can just about skate through a stock market event, but Japan and 2008 showed you can’t skate through a housing crisis,” Grantham says. Wall Street titan Jeremy Grantham has been warning of a “superbubble” in the U.S. since last year, arguing the S&P 500 is set to be cut in half as an era marked by exceedingly risky investor behavior begins to fade. Now, the cofounder and chief investment strategist of the Boston-based asset management firm Grantham, Mayo, and van Otterloo (GMO) is warning the U.S. may be headed toward a housing crisis as mortgage rates soar,...

Stocks are off to a tough start this year. The tech-heavy Nasdaq is already in a correction, a more than 10% drop. Jeremy Grantham, co-founder and chief investment strategist of Grantham, Mayo, & van Otterloo (GMO) said in a report called "Let the Wild Rumpus Begin" that stocks are now in the midst of a "superbubble," that it won't end well. He noted that US stocks have experienced two such "superbubbles" before: 1929, a market fall that led to the Great Depression, and again in 2000, when the dot-com bubble burst. He also said the US housing market was a...

The world looks at China with envy. China’s economy grew 8.7 percent last year, while the world economy contracted by 2.2 percent. It seems that Chinese “Confucian capitalism” – a market economy powered by 1.3 billion people and guided by an authoritarian regime that can pull levers at will – is superior to our touchy-feely democracy and capitalism. But the grass on China’s side of the fence is not as green as it appears. In fact, China’s defiance of the global recession is not a miracle – it’s a superbubble. When it deflates, it will spell big trouble for all...

Why China Is The Mother Of All Grey Swans

Soros, the Man Who Cries Wolf, Now Is Warning of a 'Superbubble' By GREG IP June 21, 2008; Page B1 He has cried wolf many times, but this time George Soros says the beast is really upon us. Mr. Soros, the chairman of Soros Fund Management, is best-known as a speculator, philanthropist and political activist. He made a fortune by doing things such as betting against Britain's currency in 1992 and Thailand's in 1997. A Hungarian refugee, he has spent millions to promote democracy and learning in post-Soviet nations. He also has spent heavily to promote liberal causes and has...

ASSOCIATED PRESS CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Astronomers using the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia have discovered a superbubble, the fastest-spinning pulsar ever observed and a magnetic field that resembles a Slinky. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory announced the discoveries last week during an American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington, D.C. The observatory is located in Pocahontas County. The superbubble of hydrogen gas rises 10,000 light years above the Milky Way's plane. Astronomer Jay Lockman said it is not unusual for hydrogen gas to be driven outward from the Milky Way's plane. But he said whatever drove the...