Crisis may be worse than Depression: Volcker

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090221/pl_nm/us_usa_economy_volcker_4


NEW YORK (Reuters) – The global economy may be deteriorating even faster than it did during the Great Depression, Paul Volcker, a top adviser to President Barack Obama, said on Friday.

Volcker noted that industrial production around the world was declining even more rapidly than in the United States, which is itself under severe strain.

"I don't remember any time, maybe even in the Great Depression, when things went down quite so fast, quite so uniformly around the world," Volcker told a luncheon of economists and investors at Columbia University.

Given the extent of the damage, financial regulations must be improved and enhanced to prevent future debacles, although policy-makers must be cautious not disrupt things further while the turmoil is ongoing.

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But how I feel about him is immaterial, there in a single page you have the blueprint for where President Obama will go. Nothing more drastic than the bailouts will happen. There will be no "nationalization". There will be a return to regulation and strict enforcement thereof. "Banks" trading on their own accounts indeed.