Citi: Have now gone into the business of prophesy (with our tax dollars)

Keep in mind, Citibank is owned (was owned and is still,. although the percentage may be slightly more or less) by the American people (US government) as a result of monies loaned / given to Citi to BAIL THEM OUT of financial messes they were bright enough to climb in and then rolled around in the muck with the rest of the sounder.

From this entity, owned also in part by non-US interests, comes an oracle of insight into the future of world economics.  Going to a psychic may result in having to handle tarot cards, crystals, or otherwise staring at the woman and listening as she tells you your future.  Usually this future revealed to you includes insights ranging in time frame from the minute you walk out of the room to some far off point, 20-30 years into your future. 

The oracle of insight at Citi is prophesying events that will come to be in, oh, about 30 years.  And much like the psychic who takes your money and reveals your precise future, we must take this peddler of brilliance as seriously as we take that psychic.

There are simply too many holes in the below, to even begin explicating why this oracle of future events should change careers.  Someone should inquire as to whether he was involved in the collapse of Citi (what did it get down to $1-2 a share).





US Will Be the World's Third Largest Economy: Citi


25 Feb 2011
Patrick Allen
CNBC EMEA Head of News



The world is going to become richer and richer as developing economies play catch up over the coming years, according to Willem Buiter, chief economist at Citigroup.

"We expect strong growth in the world economy until 2050, with average real GDP growth rates of 4.6 percent per annum until 2030 and 3.8 percent per annum between 2030 and 2050," Buiter wrote in a market research.

"As a result, world GDP should rise in real PPP-adjusted terms from $72 trillion in 2010 to $380 trillion dollars in 2050," he wrote.

As the world watches oil prices rise sharply amid unrest in the Middle East, Buiter's analysis of the world's long-term prospects offer some hope that better times are ahead but if he is right power will shift from the West to the East very quickly.

"China should overtake the US to become the largest economy in the world by 2020, then be overtaken by India by 2050," he predicted.

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Growth will not be smooth, according to Buiter. "Expect booms and busts. Occasionally, there will be growth disasters, driven by poor policy, conflicts, or natural disasters. When it comes to that, don't believe that 'this time it's different'."

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However, there are some easy wins for poor countries with big, young populations, he said.

"Developing Asia and Africa will be the fastest growing regions, in our view, driven by population and income per capita growth, followed in terms of growth by the Middle East, Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, the CIS, and finally the advanced nations of today," he wrote.

"For poor countries with large young populations, growing fast should be easy: open up, create some form of market economy, invest in human and physical capital, don't be unlucky and don't blow it. Catch-up and convergence should do the rest," Buiter added.

Buiter has constructed a "3G index" to measure economic progress; 3G stands for "Global Growth Generators" and is a weighted average of six growth drivers that the Citigroup economists consider important:

Using that index the nations to watch over the coming years are Bangladesh, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Mongolia, Nigeria, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

"They are our 3G countries," Buiter said.





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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