From 'stocks are dead’ to ‘Bear Stearns is not’: World’s worst financial predictions

“Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau” | This was said by Irving Fisher, one of America's greatest economists, in October 1929. Within two weeks, stocks plunged, pushing America into the Great Depression. These stocks didn't reach the highs they fell from for 25 years. (Image: WikiMedia Commons)

“At this juncture, however, the impact on the broader economy and financial markets of the problems in the sub-prime market seems likely to be contained” | Ben Bernanke, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve said this to a Congressional committee in March 2007. He downplayed the subprime debt crisis that swallowed the US stock market whole a year later, in the September 2008 recession. (Image: Reuters)

“We’re going to reach a point where stocks are correctly priced, and we think that's 36,000 … It’s not a bubble. Far from it. The stock market is undervalued” | James Glassman released his book in 1999 titled "Dow 36,000". He predicted that the Dow Jones stock index would more than triple in the coming years. After 19 years, the index still has a long way to reach 36,000. (Image: WikiMedia Commons)

Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan predicted in his book "The Age of Turbulence" in 2007 that the Fed may have to raise interest rates to double-digit levels to control inflation in the near future. However, in the consequent years, the rates have been near zero. (Image: Reuters)

"The Soviet economy is proof that, contrary to what many skeptics had earlier believed, a socialist command economy can function and even thrive."| This statement by Nobel Prize-winning American economist Paul Samuelson in 1989 was extremely ill-timed as two years after this, the Soviet Union collapsed. (Image: nobelprize.org)

Joseph Cassano, head of the insurer AIG's financial products division, said in August 2007, that he couldn't see AIG "losing one dollar in any of those (credit derivative) transactions." AIG collapsed in 2008 and was bailed out. (Image: Reuters)

"The power behind the Japanese juggernaut is much greater than most Americans suspect, and the juggernaut cannot stop of its own volition, for Japan has created a kind of automatic wealth machine, perhaps the first since King Midas." | In his book ‘Trading Places’, economist Clyde Prestowitz said this in the late 80s, just as Japan was reaching the end of its long economic boom. (Image: Reuters)

Abby Joseph Cohen, Goldman Sachs chief investment strategist made a prediction in December 2007, that the S&P 500 would hit 1,675 by the end of 2008, a climb of 14 percent — it actually ended below 900. (Image: Reuters)

The Death of Equities: How Inflation is Destroying the Stock Market | This was a famous cover story of the Business Week magazine in August 1979, after a decade of high inflation, low growth and poor performance of the stock markets in the United States. Three years after this feature, the market set off for an 18-year rally, during which stocks would multiply 15 times.

“Bear Stearns is fine! Do not take your money out. It is not in trouble, do not move your money” | Jim Cramer, host of CNBC’s Mad Money had given this disastrous advice to his viewers in March 2008, five days before the company crashed and its stock price went from $62 per share to $2 per share. (Image: Reuters)