About eight years ago, U.S. economic forecaster Harry Dent Jr. made headlines predicting the Dow would hit 40,000 by 2009. Now, he's calling for a crash by this summer and is urging followers to get 100 per cent out of equities. His dire outlook doesn't end there: he also foresees a 50 per cent or more price collapse in Toronto and Vancouver housing markets. (Read the full story here.)
Widely known as a true contrarian, Mr. Dent focuses on demographic trends for much of his economic analysis and is concerned about both the European debt crisis and aging babyboomers who will be spending less to spur economic activity. While the Dow never hit 40,000 (it only reached 14,000 in 2007), some of Mr. Dent's earlier predictions have been right despite being met with much skepticism, including his call on the slowdown in the Japanese economy and the Dow hitting 10,000 in the early 1990s.
Mr. Dent will explain his latest views in this live 90-minute discussion, and will face off against an expert with a decidedly different view: Serge G. Pépin, head of investments for BMO Investments. Mr. Pépin's is urging investors to avoid eliminating too much risk in investment portfolios and never jump to hasty conclusions.
You will be able to submit questions to both in a Q&A to be held later in the discussion.
Mobile readers can click here for an easlier to read format.
Darcy Keith