Former President Donald Trump warned of a stock market crash coming soon despite markets being close to all-time highs.
"You're gonna have a crash the likes of which you've never seen with what they're doing. It's going to be scary," Trump said at a campaign rally in Iowa on Tuesday.
Trump also said that he was the only person that could prevent World War III.
"The world is in more danger than it's ever been because of the power of weaponry, and I will be the only one—I can say this with great surety—I will prevent World War III," he said.
The S&P 500 was just 0.8 percent off its all-time high of 4,796.56 set on January 3, 2022, on Tuesday, but an economic downturn of some form is expected by some, or at least flagged as possible. Others are more optimistic because of expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates next year.
"It's not likely we will hike again," Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said at a news conference on December 13.
Experts have said that the goal is to keep the economy shifting as smoothly as possible with the aim of lowering inflation as the economy slows but attempting to avoid a recession in doing so—a so-called "soft landing."
Despite this, a number of experts have echoed Trump's sentiments. Economist Harry Dent said the stock market rise was "100 percent artificial."
"Since 2009, this has been 100 percent artificial, unprecedented money printing and deficits; $27 trillion over 15 years, to be exact," he told Fox Digital. "This is off the charts, 100 percent artificial, which means we're in a dangerous state. I think 2024 is going to be the biggest single crash year we'll see in our lifetimes."
Wall Street hedge fund manager Mark Spitznagel told Business Insider that the economy is inside a "bubble" that, in being burst, could "burn down the whole forest."
"I think there will be a huge crash coming," he said.
Other forecasters are far more optimistic because of potential interest rate cuts. Jay Hatfield, CEO of investment firm Infrastructure Capital Advisors, told CNBC that "2024 will be the year of rate cuts, and that's very bullish for stocks."
Trump, the leading Republican candidate in the 2024 presidential race, exercised a familiar attack on a Biden administration struggling in the polls, citing inflation as the spearhead.
"Rich people getting richer," he said. "I'm a politician now so we just keep chugging along, right?"
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Benjamin Lynch is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is U.S. politics and national affairs and he ... Read more
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