Ravi Batra

I’ve never met the man, but I’m familiar with his work.

He was one of few U.S. economists who predicted the Great Recession. He also predicted the rise of Islam and the rise of a charismatic leader (Barack Obama).

Now when he gazes into his crystal ball, he sees more doom and gloom.

And his predictions make sense.

With all the billions of government dollars poured into the U.S. economy, the recovery is still as weak as a patient stuck in intensive care.

According to Gayle Reaves, the top editor at Fort Worth Weekly, Batra now worries about the lack of government regulation.

Reaves writes that, in the professor’s opinion, “the financial reforms being pushed through Congress aren’t enough, that the economic team brought on board by Obama represents just more of the same old stuff, and that too many of the big bankers and other architects of the last crisis are still in power.”

She continues, “Almost no one likes his ideas — except thousands of regular folks, business leaders, and admirers across a spectrum of professional disciplines, who may not agree with Batra on every point but who believe that his theories out to be included in the global debate now going on over how to fix the economy.”

I found Reaves’ profile of Batra very thought provoking and highly recommend that you spend a few minutes reading it. Find  “The U.S. Economy: Still a House of Cards” right here.

The scariest part of the profile? Reaves writes, “Continuation of old policies and old ways of looking at the economy, he says, are going to lead America — and thus the world — to another crisis soon, probably later this year. If and when that happens, Batra says, there will be little capacity left for any more taxpayer bailouts — and with unemployment still at near-record levels, the pain for the country could be much worse even than last time.”

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Dave Lieber, The Watchdog columnist for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is the founder of Watchdog Nation. The new 2010 edition of his book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, is out. Revised and expanded, the book won two national book awards in 2009 for social change. Twitter @DaveLieber

See the listing here.

Plus, a big congratulations to community activist Don Young, who was “Critic’s Choice.”

The weekly wrote:

The old phrase “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog” applies perfectly to community activist Don Young, a small guy with a lot of fight in him.

Young has been looking over the shoulder of the gas drillers in Tarrant County since they first arrived, constantly letting news media and the public know what’s going on. He’s tireless in his efforts to protect Fort Worth from the negative impacts of urban drilling. The town could use more like him.

Way to go, Don. We can always use more watchdogs.