Updated March 01, 2018 21:32:33

Photo: Despite his prediction, Bill Gates said he was optimistic about another crash. (Reuters: Rick Wilking)

Very few experts saw the 2008 global financial crisis coming, and those who did were not taken seriously.

A decade on since the US financial crash, the effects of which were felt around the world, people are wary of history repeating itself.

This became evident in a recent Reddit "Ask Me Anything" (AMA) by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.

Mr Gates was asked whether, in the near future, "we will have another financial crisis similar to the one in 2008".

There is no trigger point for a market crash, debt is always the root cause — but it is also the solution, writes Ian Verrender.

Mr Gates responded by saying that while it is hard to say when, another financial crash "is a certainty".

"Fortunately we got through that one [the 2008 financial crash] reasonably well," he said.

"Despite this prediction of bumps ahead, I am quite optimistic about how innovation and capitalism will improve the situation for humans everywhere."

Mr Gates deferred to his close friend, US billionaire Warren Buffet.

"Warren has talked about this and he understands this area far better than I do," he said.

Mr Gates' prediction was somewhat optimistic, but economists — especially the ones who predicted the 2008 crash — say we are standing again on the same precipice faced in the 2008 crash.

They say countries including China, South Korea, Canada and Australia — the ones who dodged the bullet a decade ago — are most at risk.

The 2008 financial crisis was one of the hardest-hitting crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s first entered the US financial sector, before spreading to financial markets overseas.

Topics: international-financial-crisis, business-economics-and-finance, united-states

First posted March 01, 2018 21:10:13