“Worse Than the Depression”

Something that seems to have slipped under the radar this week: John Whitehead, the former chairman of Goldman Sachs, predicted on Wednesday that the current financial crisis will be worse than the Great Depression. "I think it would be worse than the depression," said Whitehead, who was at Goldman for 38 years. "We're talking about reducing the credit of the United States of America, which is the backbone of the economic system." Whitehead worried that the ratings agencies will downgrade U.S. government bonds due to large deficits. Whitehead also served as Ronald Reagan’s deputy secretary of state and chaired the Lower Manhattan Development Corp after September 11.