Soros: world faces worst finance crisis since WW2
VIENNA, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Billionaire investor George Soros said the world was facing the worst financial crisis since World War Two and the United States was threatened with recession, according to an interview with the Austrian daily Standard.
"The situation is much more serious than any other financial crisis since the end of World War Two," Soros was quoted as saying.
He said over the past few years politics had been guided by some basic misunderstandings stemming from something which he called "market fundamentalism" -- the belief financial markets tended to act as a balance.
"This is the wrong idea," he said. "We really do have a serious financial crisis now."
Asked whether he thought the United States was headed for a recession, he said: "Yes, this is a threat in the United States".
He added he was surprised how little understanding there had been on how recession was also a threat to Europe.
European shares fell nearly 6 percent on Monday, their biggest one-day slide since the Sept. 11 attacks of 2001, as fears of a U.S. recession and more write downs in the financial sector sparked a broad-based selloff. (Reporting by Karen Strohecker)
