From an editorialising Domainfax hack:
For decades, American author and economic forecaster Harry Dent has made a living out of boom-bust financial prophecies.
The author of books like The Great Depression Ahead and more recently, Zero Hour, self-proclaims that his skill is forecasting demographic trends, and predicting bubbles that crash.
Like with most economic doomsayers, sometimes he’s right, sometimes he’s wrong.
The Harvard Business School graduate who worked as a consultant for Fortune 100 companies at Bain & Company before founding HS Dent Investment Management, isn’t bereft of any economic understanding.
The principles underpinning Dent’s predictions are sound, and his concerns are shared by many economists globally.
..Where Dent gets people offside – some economic commentators have taken issue with what they regard as outlandish forecasts – is the extent of how harsh impending economic crashes will be.
Take for example Dent’s latest prediction for Australia: he suggests there will be a 40 to 50 per cent dive in real estate prices that will send the nation into a recession. (Less bearish economists in Australia suggest that if there is a house price correction, it is more likely in the 10 to 20 per cent range).
He says while Australia escaped a recession in 2008-09, “this time it is going to get hit in real estate and exports to China”.
Given Dent and his firm make money from encouraging people to invest and growth their wealth, he isn’t telling investors to simply save and pay down their debt.
Rather, he wants them to “take their gains and invest them in safe assets”, albeit with lower returns, such as Treasury bonds in the US, and government bonds in Australia.
“Take your gains and put them in safe place so when this global crash does occur, you can buy real estate at an unbelievable bargain,” he says.
…His wait-to-buy theory also applies to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Again, he warns investors to stay away – for now.
Since when did some junior journo’s views on Harry Dent represent truth in reporting? Is Nassim Khadem in a position to judge whether Dent is an “economic doomsayer”, whether his “principles are sound”, whether he gets “people offside” or makes “outlandish forecasts”? Bluntly, no.
In any media organisation with an ounce of professionalism this guff would be labelled “opinion” not “exclusive” but when it comes to Domainfax and realty it’s “independent” of truth “always”.
