Bill Gross, chief investment officer of Pimco, the world’s largest bond fund, has in recent years become famous for issuing downbeat warnings about the credit world. This month, however, his tone has turned positively apocalyptic.

“We haven’t faced a downturn like this since the Depression,” he observed to reporters when talking about the US housing sector and its impact. The debt market’s “effect on consumption, its effect on future lending attitudes, could bring [America] close to the zero line in terms of economic growth”, he said. “It does keep me up at night.”