Friday
Jan082010
Simon Johnson: We're Setting Ourselves Up For A Bigger Catastrophe, 'The Crisis Is Just Beginning' (VIDEO)
CNBC Video: Simon Johnson tells the truth -- aired January 7, 2010
- "We now have a financial system that is completely based on moral hazard. Crazy things happen when you have a financial system like that."
- "The conventional wisdom is you can't have back-to-back major financial crises. I think we're going to push that, we're going to have a look and see whether that's true. And the next 12 months could really be exciting. People could be very positive, but we are setting ourselves up for an enormous catastrophe."
- "....For the six major banks of the United States, their total balance sheet is over 60 percent of U.S. GDP. [The banks] got bigger during the crisis. All the big guys are out there looking to take risk. So would you -- and so would I -- if we felt we were immune. If you had a 'get out of jail free card,' wouldn't you go take a lot risk right now?"
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