Respected economist John Kay is about to make a public statement which essentially says that the world economy is a ticking time bomb and global markets are a lit fuse. Kay is a professor at the London School of Economics, a columnist for the Financial Times, and the author of a widely-read report on stock market flaws which was commissioned last year by the British government.

Prices are driven to silly levels,” Kay says, “but everyone makes a load of money in the meantime, and then you get a correction.”What is known as a “correction” in financial parlance is better understood by most people as a recession or depression resulting in lost jobs, wealth, health, and security. The lords of finance have been disarmingly frank about this money-making strategy at times.

“We actually benefit from downturns,” JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon told investors earlier this year. After the 2008 crisis Dimon told reporters he had explained downturns to his seven-year-old daughter by saying they’re “something that happens every five to seven years.”In case you haven’t been counting, the last crisis occurred five years ago.

Many financially sophisticated investors and bankers will say privately that they agree with Prof. Kay – that it’s only a matter of time until the next crisis comes. Why do they do it, then? Chuck Prince, the ousted CEO of failed megabank Citigroup, probably put it best of all. “As long as the music is playing,” he said of the run-up to the last downturn, “you’ve got to get up and dance.”