Bloomberg.com: UK & Ireland – “I’ve never lived through something like that,” Stephen Jarislowsky, the 83-year-old chairman and founder of Montreal-based money manager Jarislowsky Fraser Ltd., said yesterday about the past month on Wall Street.
“I don’t even think the ’30s were like that,” he said in a telephone interview. “At least they had a bank holiday and they closed all the banks. These idiots in Washington didn’t do that.”
On the worst day in global financial markets in 21 years, investors who have seen it all were left shaken. After the U.S. House of Representatives voted down a $700 billion rescue package supported by President George W. Bush and leaders of both parties, $1.2 trillion of market value was erased from U.S. stocks.
“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 will be wiped out.”
