Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chief who called out the tech-fueled rally of the mid-1990s as "irrational exuberance," is now giving investors a new warning.
In an interview with CNN, Greenspan said it was unlikely that the current market would stabilize and then take another big leg higher. "It would be very surprising to see it sort of stabilize here, and then take off again," Greenspan said in the interview. Markets could still go up, but "at the end of that run, run for cover."
Greenspan told CNN he didn't believe it was still a bull market, pointing to how stocks have fumbled in recent days. On Tuesday, stocks rallied but they tumbled on Monday and have been in a decline since October, weighed by concerns over global trade conflict and slowing global economies. The S&P was on track, as of Monday's close, for the worst December since 1931.
Greenspan's interview comes the week current Fed Chief Jerome Powell is set to announce another possible interest rate hike and the central bank's outlook for 2019. The Fed has been trying to restore rates to more normal levels after a decade of historic lows.
But Powell has taken criticism from President Donald Trump for raising rates. Stocks have had a volatile few months, something that is believed to be weighing on the president, who posted on Twitter on Monday that it was "incredible" the Fed was considering a rate hike.
In the CNN interview, Greenspan says the U.S. could be headed into "stagflation," an economy characterized by high inflation and high unemployment such as was seen in the 1970s. "How long it lasts or how big it gets, it's too soon to tell."
See the CNN interview here.
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