The Crash of the Millennium

From an interview published to day in globalresearch.ca.

[I just want to say --- "DUH!" The one thing ALL these guys miss is that you are also dealing with "corporate culture" which creates its own problems in and of itself, which make REMEDIES seem less and less apt to "take" ....]

Thanks to an introduction via the internet with a friend of economist and famed best selling author Dr. Ravi Batra, we have for you the transcript of an interview that took place between your editor and Dr. Batra. He has graciously agreed for me to interview him and permitted me to publish a transcript of our 1-1/2 hour discussion mostly about his views and forecast for the American and global economies. What I have discovered since meeting Dr. Batra is that his views on the global economy are very close to my own as first discussed in January 1998 at a Cambridge House Conference in Vancouver. At that conference I warned investors that the global economy was awash in far too much supply and not enough aggregate demand and as a result, we are likely to sink into a depression in the not too distant future. I am flattered to know that a man of Dr. Batra's stature generally agrees with my position. But as a professor, scholar, economist, he explains in great detail and in a logical manner, much better than I, why we our stock market and the American economy are inevitably headed for the abyss. His new book, "The Crash of the Millennium" ties together the thoughts of his previous books, many of which have been international best sellers. Dr. Batra thinks the greatest bull market in stocks the world has ever seen is likely to end before 1999 draws to a close or at the very latest by the first month or two of 2000.

What does he suggest you do to prepare for the carnage that lies ahead? Dr. Batra is by no means a gold bug, but he told your editor that the only long-term investment he now recommends is gold and gold shares. Why? Because Dr. Batra believes that what lies ahead for the U.S. is not only a depression, but also considerable amount of inflation. Some of the thinking that underlies Dr. Batra's predictions is presented in the following discussion, but I urge you to purchase his book to gain an appreciation for the soundness of logic that goes into his forecasts. I am predicting Dr. Batra's latest work will be his 9th best seller. Previous works by Dr. Batra that made the best seller lists include: The Downfall of Capitalism and Communism, The Great Depression of 1990, The Myth of Free Trade, Ravi Batra's Forecasts, The Stock Market Crashes of 1997 and 1998: The Asian Crisis and Your Future and Surviving the Great Depression of 1990. As our discussion took place on July 29, 1999, Wall Street analysts and CNBC talking heads were obviously confused about why interest rates were heading higher (in the absence of inflation) and why the stock markets were beginning to look a bit strained. The recent market action was no mystery to Batra. The U.S. has lived beyond its means for a long time by taking on huge amounts of foreign debt which can be expected to lead to much higher interest rates and most likely very soon, the implosion of our financial system.

*snip*

BATRA: Yes, definitely if the Fed were involved or if other central banks were involved in this type of operation, that certainly would be another example of Crony Capitalism.

Essentially it is the rich stealing from the poor countries again, and I would not be surprised if it is happening.

TAYLOR: There have been some indication that the British decision to sell 1/2 of their gold was timed to ensure that the gold price would keep falling so that Goldman could continue to buy gold at lower and lower prices. There are rumors of an enormous gold short position in the markets amounting to three or four year's worth of production. If firms like Goldman were forced to cover their positions at higher prices, they could lose enormous amounts of money.

*snip*

BATRA: What I said in Chapter 9 is based on the law of social cycles which states that over time social institutions evolve. We see, for example, numerous changes since early history and that each step along the way was better. Thus, for example, Feudalism was better than what preceded it. Capitalism was better than Feudalism. Crony Capitalism, bad as it is, is better in many ways than the earliest capitalism, say during the industrial revolution. Therefore I think the new system will be much better than the current Crony Capitalism. The new system I think will be one of economic democracy, and here again social evolution comes to play that over thousands of years of human evolution, we have discovered political democracy but we have yet to discover economic democracy. On that ladder of evolution, the next step is economic democracy. And once democracy is in the factories and the economic system, we will have a better political democracy as well.

TAYLOR: Well I certainly hope you are right about all that. I am 52 years old, so I hope I will live to see the utopian day you speak of.

BATRA: You will see that day within the next 10 years.