The Top 10 Most Dire Predictions for the Economy as of June

Economic forecasters expect tough times ahead for the global economy, especially for the most debt-laden nations — including the United States. Here are 10 of the most ominous predictions from the last several weeks.

10. Years of Above-Average Inflation, Below-Average Growth

“Several years of above-average inflation and below-average growth now seem likely,” World Bank President David Malpass said at a June 7 press conference in comments that accompanied the World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects report, which compared today’s financial conditions to the 1970s. The report predicted per capita income in developing countries would fall 5 percent below pre-pandemic times.

“The risk from stagflation is considerable,” Malpass added.

9. ‘Very, Very Slow, Sluggish Growth’

“There’s a reasonable chance at some point that we have a recession,” Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon told CNBC in a May interview. “Or we have … very, very slow sluggish growth.”

8. ‘Unprecedented’ Confluence of ‘Shocks to the System’

“This is among — if not the most — complex, dynamic environments I’ve ever seen in my career,” Goldman Sachs President John Waldron said at a June 1 conference in New York. “The confluence of the number of shocks to the system to me is unprecedented.”

“We expect there’s going to be tougher economic times ahead,” he added.

7. ‘A Day of Reckoning’

“Are we going to have a recession? It’s pretty likely,” Larry Harris, a former chief economist for the Securities and Exchange Commission, said last month. “There have been huge things happening in the economy and enormous government spending. When balances get large, adjustments have to be large.

“There will be a day of reckoning,” Harris said. “The question is how soon.”

6. A ‘Hurricane’ is ‘Coming Our Way’

“You know, I said there’s storm clouds but I’m going to change it … it’s a hurricane,” JPMorgan Chase CEO and Democratic mega-donor Jamie Dimon said at the same conference at which Waldron appeared. “That hurricane is right out there, down the road, coming our way. We just don’t know if it’s a minor one or Superstorm Sandy or Andrew or something like that. You better brace yourself.”

5. ‘The Pain Will Become Great’

“We believe that we are in a tightening mode that can cause corrections or downward moves to many financial assets,” Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio said in an interview this week. “The pain of that will become great and that will force the central banks to ease again, probably somewhere close to the next presidential elections in 2024.”

4. ‘I Didn’t Understand’ What Was Coming

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen — whose job is typically to predict that only good things will happen under the ruling regime headed by her boss, President Joe Biden — acknowledged in a CNN interview last week that she believed things were going to become much worse than she had previously believed.

“There have been unanticipated and large shocks to the economy that have boosted energy and food prices,” Yellen said. “And supply bottlenecks that affected our economy badly that I didn’t, at the time, fully understand.”

3. A ‘Super Bad Feeling’

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk disclosed in an email last week that he has a “super bad feeling” about where the economy is headed. He said in the same email that he was reducing salaried headcount at Tesla by 10 percent.

2. ‘Mass Poverty’

In an alarming assessment published on Twitter this week, millionaire tech entrepreneur Kim Dotcom said he believed the economy was facing a “controlled demolition” that would result in “mass poverty.”

“I will try to help you understand why the future is not what we’re hoping for,” Dotcom wrote. “It’s worse than most can imagine. Our leaders know. But what are they planning?

“The reality is that the US has been bankrupt for some time and what’s coming is a nightmare: Mass poverty and a new system of control,” he added.

1. ‘Hyper-Inflation and Depression’

Rich Dad Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki was ahead of the curve when he issued one of the bleakest assessments in April, predicting that social spending programs would fail and hyper-inflation would take hold.

“Wiley COYOTE moment coming,” Kiyosaki wrote on Twitter. “Biggest Bubble Bust coming. Baby Boomer’s retirements to be stolen. $10 trillion in fake money spending ending. Government, Wall Street & Fed are thieves. Hyper-inflation Depression here. Buy gold, silver, Bitcoin before the coyote wakes up. Take care.”