In case you could use a break from scarfing hamburgers while you wait for the evening fireworks, I’m looking for quotes from 2006 – 2009 about the prospects for recession and depression from every mainstream or contrarian figure of note. I’ve collected a fair number already, but the more, the merrier. I intend on grading them on the following curve:
Grade: A-
Another major problem is that the housing bubble has finally burst. Thus far it has only produced a slow leak, but by next year the air will be rushing out with gale force winds…. If Bernanke tries to borrow from Greenspan’s playbook and attempts to prevent or mitigate the severity of the coming recession, the excess liquidity will not simply move into another asset class, as it did from stocks to real estate, but into real stuff, such as commodities and consumer goods.
Peter Schiff, June 29, 2006
Grade: F
“As I’ve discussed on CNBC’s Kudlow & Co., the strong, across-the-board, five-month rally in stocks cannot possibly be predicting a recession. While the stock market can sometimes emit false positives on recessions, rarely does it give off false negatives. In fact, I think it is predicting a “Goldilocks” soft-landing for the economy.”
Larry Kudlow, Debunking Krugman’s Recession, December 2, 2006
The more direct the quote, the better. I don’t care if it’s positive or negative, as it’s just as useful to have someone declaring there is no recession or there will not a depression as the contrary. I don’t have much use for the mealy-mouthed attempts to have it both ways, though. Please include the date, the name of the economist or financial figure, and a link to the source along with the quote.