February 21, 2009, 7.04 am (Singapore time)

Soros sees no bottom for world financial 'collapse'

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NEW YORK - Renowned investor George Soros said on Friday the world financial system has effectively disintegrated, adding that there is yet no prospect of a near-term resolution to the crisis.

Mr Volcker: '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'

Mr Soros said the turbulence is actually more severe than during the Great Depression, comparing the current situation to the demise of the Soviet Union.

He said the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September marked a turning point in the functioning of the market system.

'We witnessed the collapse of the financial system,' Mr Soros said at a Columbia University dinner. 'It was placed on life support, and it's still on life support. There's no sign that we are anywhere near a bottom.'

His comments echoed those made earlier at the same conference by Paul Volcker, a former Federal Reserve chairman who is now a top adviser to President Barack Obama.

Mr Volcker said 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,' Mr 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.

Mr Volcker, a former chairman of the Federal Reserve famed for breaking the back of inflation in the early 1980s, mocked the argument that 'financial innovation,' a code word for risky securities, brought any great benefits to society. For most people, he said, the advent of the ATM machine was more crucial than any asset-backed bond.

'There is little correlation between sophistication of a banking system and productivity growth,' he said.

He stressed the importance of preventing financial institutions large enough to pose a threat to the entire system from engaging in risky behavior such as running hedge funds or trading for its own accounts.

The current crisis had its beginning in global imbalances like a lack of savings in the United States, but policy-makers around the world were too reticent to take action until it was too late, Mr Volcker said.

Now that the crisis had erupted, it was important to take decisive actions, including a more effective regulatory structure and some movement toward uniform accounting systems, Mr Volcker said.

He said all financial institutions that are deemed too large to fail should be subject to increased scrutiny, echoing the findings of the Group of 30, a panel of policy-makers and influential economists, which he leads. -- REUTERS