George Soros: Double-Dip Recession Is Here

Worry no longer about an impending double-dip recession—it’s already here, says George Soros. “I think we are in it already,” the billionaire investor told CNBC, citing Republicans’ rejection of fiscal stimulus as a key problem. “We have a slowdown and basically a conflict about whether the rich ought to pay taxes to create jobs or not,” he said. A scuttled deal in Washington “would have balanced the budget over the long term, but would have allowed short-term fiscal stimulus, which would have been the right policy,” he noted.

But since that didn't happen, “it will come to the electorate next year to decide what they want,” he said. Soros also addressed the euro zone crisis, calling it “a more dangerous situation” worldwide than Lehman Brothers’ fall. “I think that the authorities, when push comes to shove, will do whatever it takes to hold the system together, because the alternative is just too terrible to contemplate." One solution: A few of the smallest countries could “default or leave the euro,” as long as the process is “done in an orderly way.” (More George Soros stories.)