Merrill chief sees severe global slowdown

[FarCenter]

By Greg Farrell in New York -- http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/834ebf5e-aff9-11dd-a795-0000779fd18c.html

Published: November 11 2008 14:42 | Last updated: November 11 2008 20:06

The global economy is entering a slowdown of epic prop­ortions comparable with the period after the 1929 crash, John Thain, chairman and chief executive of Merrill Lynch, warned on Tuesday. Speaking at the company’s annual banking and financial services conference, Mr Thain said while he was cautiously optimistic about the future of the financial services industry, he lacked optimism about the near-term prospects of the US economy and global markets.

“Right now, the US economy is contracting very rapidly. We are looking at a per­iod of global slowdown,” he told investors. “This is not like 1987 or 1998 or 2001. The contraction going on is bigger than that. We will in fact look back to the 1929 period to see the kind of slow­down we’re seeing now.”

Mr Thain also said the economic problems afflicting the US, where housing prices and other asset values were falling, would wreak havoc across the world. “There is no such thing as decoupling,” he said, referring to the popular theory that emerging markets could sustain reasonable growth even while the world’s leading economies suffered recessions. “All equity markets are linked. Each individual economy will be more or less affected, depending on reliance on global trade and commerce.”

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[tazkcmo]

1. Wow! These guys are really on top of it!

I'm pretty sure ordinary people everywhere already knew this a few years ago.

[rhett o rick]

2. you beat me to it. nm