"There Will Be Blood"

Harvard author and financial crisis guru Niall Ferguson has landed with a thud in Ottawa, spreading messages that could make even the most confident policy makers squirm.

The global crisis is far from over, has only just begun, and Canada is no exception, Mr. Ferguson said in an interview before delivering a presentation to public-policy think tank, Canada 2020.

Policy makers and forecasters who see a recovery next year are probably lying to boost public confidence, he said. And the crisis will eventually provoke political conflict, albeit not on the scale of a world war, but violent all the same.

“There will be blood.”

The entire article, published in the Globe and Mail, takes a rather grim approach to the chances of economic recovery this year, contrary to the rhetoric of late by Barack Obama and some government economists.

With GM on the brink of bankruptcy and shutting down most of its factories for the summer, and with Chrysler definitely headed to bankruptcy, Ferguson's prediction seems to hold merit.