NEW YORK (Reuters) - Billionaire investor George Soros forecast on Monday that the U.S. economy is "on the verge of a very serious economic correction" after decades of overspending.

"We have borrowed an awful lot of money and now the bill is coming to us," he said during a lecture at the New York University, also adding that the war on terror "has thrown America out of the rails."

Asked whether a recession was inevitable, Soros said: "I think we are definitely in for a slowdown that I think will be a bigger slowdown than (Fed Chairman Ben) Bernanke is seeing."

Famous for his speculative attack on the Bank of England that made him more than $1 billion, Soros declined to nominate which currencies are more vulnerable currently. He also declined to comment specifically on the dollar.

"I know exactly where the currencies are going to but I'm not going to tell that to you," he told the audience.

Last week, investment guru Jim Rogers, who co-founded the Quantum Fund with Soros in the 1970s, recommended selling the dollar as well as U.S. investment banks and U.S. housing stocks.

Soros said that, for now, China is the "absolute winner" in economic terms, and will continue to see its economy soaring during the next few years.

"Now it is going through this fantastic transformation but in 10 years time I think you may well have a financial crisis in China," he said.

i didn't realize this was a left wing web site.

but! many wish to blame "our" men and women defending our country and blame a "leader" who finally stood up to the terrorists.

we really should look no farther than our back yard for why the slow down is here.

Look at the price of housing (supply and demand) then couple it with lenders who in conjunction with realtors over priced the property. then loaned 125% of the value of the property. add in the factor of uniques ways to make monthy payments. then loose a job or two because of buy outs, well the snow ball begins.

those to the north of the USA can relate to the cost of a "controlling government" high taxes, etc. it hurts, adds to and becomes the problem. don't get me wrong about you nothern folks. i grew up in seattle, we loved to make runs to BC. drinking then there was 18, in washington was 21, and those BC girls, nice very nice.

while housing may be down in many areas of the country, commerical is up, and it may last into springs of 2008 before you see a turn around. but like the over priced houses, many a pumper is in trouble. many bought pumps thnking work would last forever. but it never does. now the ones who have over spent are now cutting prices in order to help pay bill, even if they are losing money.  for example a competitor here takes a job for $75.00 per hour no minum $1.50 per yard and no travel. heck i use to charge that for an old washing machine grout pump 15 years ago. i don't not run those anymore, good boat anchor; maybe?

heck, look at the bright side you can be buying repo pumps at very low price, even houses, apartment building etc. "another mans lose is another mans gain". belive in yourself, sell what you believe you have over anyone else. you will win. price cutters are always price cutters, even when things are good

"Left" has nothing to do with it. The Fed' Chairman, the Sec. Treas' and every other knowing person on this planet is aware that things are maybe not so good and are liable to get worse. I don't really care who got us here; it makes no difference. The fact that I was trying to reinforce is that the troops should maybe think twice before making any major purchases.

Forewarned is forearmed where I come from. We don't really talk about left and right here. Just what IS.

up and down well i was in the RE business and it was still flat so i went back to concrete then it went good so i bought a pump because the payment was the same as the advertising cost of RE. so the mortgage brokers cut a hog and iam glad they are on the skids. the market has been diving all year and i was doing some out of town work and looked at some one acre lots at 80K none were available then but now there is a half dozen on the market. so my first pump is at the dealers for dam near as much as i payed for it, everyone gets to make money except for the guy humping the hose. iam going to do some more RE and people want hot deals so i offer them a half percent flat fee so i do not care if its over priced or does not sell as long as i do not lose money, so far nobody is hot on it they still list for full bore and go back to crying. 

Not withstanding the rights or wrongs of the Iraq war and it's costs ...... that is not what this debate is about.

What people should understand is that a handful of major USA Banks have lost billions and when added up combined trillions on "sub-prime" loans. There is more to come when the 2 year starter loans fall due for renewal. This is not counting credit card debt not supported by real estate or auto loans that were sold off by the banks to "investors"

Don't feel sorry for the poor family on "struggle street" that have lost their "no down" home, they got to live in a new home at payments less than rentals for a year or two. Consider the buyer who paid $500k in a new development two years ago and now see the home two doors down sold for $ 200k ...... there goes the neighbourhood, their equity? Then you have the overseas investors, when they stop buying USA bonds etc because the US$ has dropped 25% against the rest of the world currencies. What you will have is a truck load of "doggy do" The good side is that with a cash down of say 20% you will be able to buy that $500k dream home you saw last year for $250k.For every loser their is a winner, real estate, stock market and pump market. It is survival time not expansion time. 

exactly

this is a different situation than most everyone has seen. it is the first time that i have ever been scared

cycles run in cycles. market up-market down, oil up-oil down, housing a boom, housing a bust.

in the early seventies, late seventies,  mid-eighties, early nineties all had a down side then went to an up side. in the the 2000's started slow got hot now slow.

i look around this tiny little town full of pumps that can't pump the manufactured stones and sands, all but me cry out, bad concrete!!! need more natural sand!!! but then I have no problems pumping everyday tailgate loads. a down turn in the market area, natural sand imported, ah a higher price for concrete. no natural sand for me, ah a higher price for my pumps. this area is the worse in the USA for very course manufactured stones and sands, yet i mastered how to do it.

even in your area ready mix companies are cutting back on higher dollar ingredients, thus making a hasher mix to pump. yet still retaining strenght and a lower dollar per yard cost to the customer and yet maintaining porfit for them. work with them do something the other guy can not do. even here i developed a 2 1/2" mix that the 2" and 2 1/2" guys can't pump. hey it is $5.00 to $8.00 less per yard. oh, lower pump price for the other guys pump at a higher cost of concrete OR a lower cost of concrete and higher pump price for me. oh i see i missed spelled a word on the computer screen, hey get the white out!!

scared folks panic and don't know what to do...people in control know the ship may be sinking, but look for a another way to make it ashore

David Walker, the Comptroller General of the United States, believes that the nation is headed for a fiscal crisis of potentially catastrophic proportions. As head of the Government Accounting Office (GAO), Walker is the country's top accountant, an appointed, nonpartisan position.

David Walker's truth is spelled out in the numbers. Most glaring, while the national debt is currently roughly $9.0 trillion, that figure does not include future obligations for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

According to Walker, over the next 75 years the gap between what has been promised for these entitlement programs and how much in dedicated revenue is likely to be received (such as through payroll taxes and premiums) is a mind-boggling $38.8 trillion. That figure, which Walker calls "implicit exposures," represents the amount money we would need today, invested at Treasury rates, to pay for future entitlements. For perspective, that gap represents a burden of over $128,000 for every man, woman, and child in the United States and total national household net worth is $53.3 trillion, so the magnitude is very significant.

Unlike the controversial debate over global warming, leaders and think-tanks in Washington are not questioning David Walker's numbers in any significant way. In fact, prominent think tanks ranging from the left-leaning Brookings Institute to the conservative Heritage Foundation use the same numbers and representatives from both groups acknowledge that the problem is getting worse.

The $38.8 trillion implicit exposures have grown 197% since 2000, when the GAO projected implicit exposures of $13.0 trillion. Of that $25.8 trillion increase, $7.9 trillion can be attributed to the 2006 prescription drug program, while the rest is driven by demographic trends and the compounding effects of debt - another price of inaction.

Taken together, the unfunded national commitments, including the national debt, future obligations on entitlement programs, and other commitments such as pensions, that fiscal exposures are $50.5 trillion or $170,000 for every man, woman, and child. The United States fiscal inconvenient truth should feel especially weighty for those in Generation X, Generation Y, and the generations to follow because according to the GAO, the total fiscal burden over the next 75 years represents $400,000 for every full-time worker in the United States and $440,000 per household.

Walker warns, "If we [the United States] were a company, we would be out of business."