NEW YORK (Reuters) – Renowned investor George Soros said on Friday
the world financial system has effectively disintegrated, adding that
there is yet no prospect of a near-term resolution to the crisis.

Soros said the turbulence is actually more severe than during the
Great Depression, comparing the current situation to the demise of the
Soviet Union.

He said the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September marked a turning point in the functioning of the market system.

"We witnessed the collapse of the financial system," Soros said at a
Columbia University dinner. "It was placed on life support, and its
still on life support. Theres no sign that we are anywhere near a
bottom."

His comments echoed those made earlier at the same conference by
Paul Volcker, a former Federal Reserve chairman who is now a top
adviser to President Barack Obama.

Volcker said industrial production around the world was declining
even more rapidly than in the United States, which is itself under
severe strain.

"I don’t remember any time, maybe even in the Great Depression, when
things went down quite so fast, quite so uniformly around the world,"
Volcker said.

(Reporting by Pedro Nicolaci da Costa and Juan Lagorio; Editing by Gary Hill)