George Soros interview by the FT

FT: How do you judge the state of the world economy? Has the world recovered from the crisis of 2007/2008?

GS: Well, certainly the financial markets have regained their composure so they’re beginning to function again, and also the world economy has overcome the shock that it has suffered because for a while everything froze and now things are moving again. So there is rebound, but I think that the facts of the crisis will take a long time for the world to absorb and the main source of the problem is in the United States. This is where consumers have spent more than they earned for a period of 25 years; where we have accumulated current account deficit that reached 6.5 per cent at its peak, which actually could have continued because there were other countries – particularly China and the Asian tigers – that were very happy to run a continuous surplus and to finance our deficit. So that could have actually continued, but the households became over-indebted and it’s the consumer who accounts for over 70 per cent of the US economy that has to cut down, and that will take a while.

Then also you’ve got the banking system that basically was bankrupted. It’s at the bottom and has to earn its way out of a hole and, again, it’s happening at a pretty fast clip because banks borrow at zero and buy 10-year government bonds, yielding 3.5 per cent, and that’s a pretty fast rate of earnings for no risk. So, they’ll earn their way out of a hole, but it will also take time. And then there’s still the whole area of commercial real estate, where the losses have not been recognised. So the source of weakness in the world will be mainly in the US consumer spending and in, let’s say, the decline in the banking sector.

FT: And is that weakness in the US sufficiently grave that there could be a W-shaped recovery, that there could be another dip downwards?

GS: Well, I think certainly there could be another dip in the stock market because, right now we are enjoying the confidence multiplier and there’s a sort of a hope that this is a crisis like the previous ones and we will just sort of recover in a V-shape recovery. So, when that hope is not fulfilled, I think that will be ...

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George Soros: The worst market crisis in 60 years

The current financial crisis was precipitated by a bubble in the US housing market. In some ways it resembles other crises that have occurred since the end of the second world war at intervals ranging from four to 10 years.

However, there is a profound difference: the current crisis marks the end of an era of credit expansion based on the dollar as the international reserve currency. The periodic crises were part of a larger boom-bust process. The current crisis is the culmination of a super-boom that has lasted for more than 60 years.

Boom-bust processes usually revolve around credit and always involve a bias or misconception. This is usually a failure to recognise a reflexive, circular connection between the willingness to lend and the value of the collateral. Ease of credit generates demand that pushes up the value of property, which in turn increases the amount of credit available. A bubble starts when people buy houses in the expectation that they can refinance their mortgages at a profit. The recent US housing boom is a case in point. The 60-year super-boom is a more complicated case.

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Charlie Rose Show: George Soros Speaks

George Soros discusses his new book (The Age of Fallibility) on the Charlie Rose show.

Also featured in this video is Arianna Huffington, author of "On Becoming Fearless"

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