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March 28
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In the U.S., consumers are struggling with nearly 40 years of inflation and rising interest rates while the world struggles to cope with the war in Ukraine, the European energy crisis, China's COVID-00 policy and more.

And even after the S&P 500 has fallen more than 21% this year, Wall Street's best minds still believe stocks are headed for further declines.

The worst is yet to come, Carl Icahn, who is chairman of Icahn Enterprises and boasts a fortune of $23 billion, told MarketWatch.

Icahn made his name as a corporate raider on Wall Street in the 1980s, buying up companies and aggressively advocating changes to increase shareholder value by appointing board members, selling assets or firing employees.

Even in his 86 years, Icahn remains one of Wall Street's most respected minds, and he has repeatedly warned this year that the U.S. economy and stock market are in trouble.

The investor argues that the Federal Reserve has raised asset prices to unsustainable levels in a pandemic by using near-zero interest rates and quantitative easing, a policy in which central banks buy mortgage-backed securities and government bonds in hopes of stimulating lending and investment.

Icahn said the consequence of the Fed's loose monetary policy is exorbitant inflation, which rose 8.3 percent in August from a year earlier.

Rome is known to have experienced hyperinflation after a number of emperors reduced the silver content of the currency, the denarius. The situation then deteriorated sharply after Emperor Diocletian introduced price controls and a new coin called argenteus, which was equal in value to 50 denarii. Some historians estimate that the unsustainable policies of the Roman emperors resulted in an inflation rate of 15,000% between 200 and 300 A.D.

Icahn said that such inflation worries him so much that he would like to see the Federal Reserve raise interest rates by a full 1% in lieu of the 75 basis point increase announced by Chairman Powell.

Icahn said there are still stocks on the market today that look attractive, but warned investors not to get greedy too soon.

This is not Icahn's first warning. Back in September, the billionaire warned that a recession or worse was likely coming to the U.S. economy, and compared today's high inflation to that of the 1970s, arguing that the Fed would struggle to control consumer price growth.

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