At a time when many Americans seem obsessed with shutting out messages and viewpoints they don’t support and believe in, I found it refreshing last week to chat with a guy who most optimists and long-term investors either disbelieve or hate.
Harry S. Dent Jr. has been a soothsayer of sadness and gloom for ages now, and has spent a lot of time on the wrong side of the record bull market recovery since the financial crisis of 2008.
Currently, he is calling for the stock market to crash, with lightning speed, potentially starting within the next six weeks.
It would be easy to brush Dent off — since it feels like he has called about a dozen of the last three downturns — but I learn more by hearing from all sides than I do from ignoring dissident viewpoints.
My recent conversation with Dent for “Money Life with Chuck Jaffe” was a good reminder of why disagreement makes a market.
Moreover, Dent’s strident position may be extreme in the world of market forecasters, but his arguments are anything but outlandish.
