The Rainwater Prophecy --CNNMoney.com

[Demeter]

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2005/12/26/8364646/

By OLIVER RYAN
December 26, 2005
(FORTUNE Magazine) – Richard Rainwater doesn't want to sound like a kook. But he's about as worried as a happily married guy with more than $2 billion and a home in Pebble Beach can get. Americans are "in the kind of trouble people shouldn't find themselves in," he says. He's just wary about being the one to sound the alarm.

Rainwater is something of a behind-the-scenes type--at least as far as alpha-male billionaires go. He counts President Bush as a personal friend but dislikes politics, and frankly, when he gets worked up, he says some pretty far-out things that could easily be taken out of context. Such as: An economic tsunami is about to hit the global economy as the world runs out of oil. Or a coalition of communist and Islamic states may decide to stop selling their precious crude to Americans any day now. Or food shortages may soon hit the U.S. Or he read on a blog last night that there's this one gargantuan chunk of ice sitting on a precipice in Antarctica that, if it falls off, will raise sea levels worldwide by two feet--and it's getting closer to the edge.... And then he'll interrupt himself: "Look, I'm not predicting anything," he'll say. "That's when you get a little kooky-sounding."

SO WHAT IS THIS MAN GOING TO ACTUALLY DO ABOUT IT???

[BlueEyedSon]

1. Why should he do anything? He is probably properly hedged and

has more cash than anyone could possibly spend in a lifetime, no matter what "economic tsunami" comes....

[gristy]

2. Hmmm, this article is 15 months old

Is that chunk of ice still sitting there? Should I take this guy seriously?

[BlueEyedSon]

3. December 26, 2005 = 15 months?