The Catastrophist View

What would it take to send the U.S. economy—and New York’s—into free fall? A doomsday primer.

From New York Magazine:

Peter Schiff is laughing at me. I’ve just asked him to entertain the following notion: that we dodged a bullet during August’s financial-market turmoil and, with the stock market bouncing right back from every dip, things might be okay. So why worry?

He stops laughing. “Why worry?” he asks. “Because we dodged a bullet but are about to step on a hand grenade.”

Sitting in a corner office of a nondescript building just off I-95 in Darien, Connecticut, Schiff, the president of brokerage Euro Pacific Capital, and author of Crash Proof: How to Profit From the Coming Economic Collapse, will spend the next hour spelling out a singularly pessimistic view of the American economy. And he will do so while exhibiting a curious juxtaposition unique to the bearish prognosticator: He speaks of disaster with a smile on his face. No, he’s not happy about our impending doom. But he is happy that people are finally taking him seriously....MORE

THREAT NO. 1
The Bottom Continues to Fall Out of the Housing Market

THREAT NO. 2
The Derivatives-Related Meltdown, Part II

THREAT NO. 3
Consumers Run Out of Steam (and Take the Economy Down With Them)

THREAT NO. 4
That the Rest of the World Decides They Don’t Need Us and the Dollar Tumbles Hard

THREAT NO. 5
That We Don’t See It Happening Because It’s a Slow-Motion Train Wreck