General

“Capitalism as we know it will be wiped out”

Since the economic crisis kicked into high gear this month, many pundits have tried to convey how serious it is by describing it as the worst crisis they’ve ever seen.

Somehow it just means more coming from Stephen Jarislowsky…

“I’ve never lived through something like that,” Stephen Jarislowsky, the 83-year-old chairman of Montreal-based money manager Jarislowsky Fraser Ltd., said yesterday after Wachovia Corp. joined Fannie Mae, American International Group Inc. and Washington Mutual Inc. on the list of financial companies to fail in the past month.

“I’m more than worried,” said Jarislowsky, who co-founded his firm in 1955 and oversees C$51 billion ($49 billion). “In a market like this, I’m not looking at opportunity. I am looking at preservation of capital. If governments aren’t careful and this mess isn’t solved fast, capitalism as we know it will be wiped out.”

Read the Bloomberg story here.

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