Justin Fox on past prophets of doom

We have heard such pronouncements of impending doom before, of course. Howard Ruff's How to Prosper During the Coming Bad Years was a top seller in 1979. Ravi Batra's The Great Depression of 1990 hit No. 1 in 1987. Ruff's book did in fact ring in several very bad years, and there was a recession in 1990. But doom was averted, the economy came roaring back both times, and the lesson learned was that betting against the continued prosperity of the U.S. was a losing strategy.

~ Justin Fox, "The Armageddon Gang," Time, April 9, 2007