Marc Faber, also known as “Dr Doom”, launched a racially charged attack in his latest newsletter when he discussed racial conflict in America.
He wrote: “And thank God white people populated America, and not the blacks.
“Otherwise, the US would look like Zimbabwe, which it might look like one day anyway, but at least America enjoyed 200 years in the economic and political sun under a white majority.
“I am not a racist, but the reality — no matter how politically incorrect — needs to be spelled out.”
Dr Faber is known as a pessimistic market doomsayer and frequently appears as a financial market analyst on US TV.
In the latest instalment of his Gloom Boom and Doom report, he addressed confrontations between protesters on both sides of a debate about whether to remove a statue of confederate general Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia.
He referred to confederate monuments as “statues of honourable people whose only crime was to defend what all societies had done for more than 5,000 years: keep a part of the population enslaved.”
His comments have attracted criticism by readers who consider them to be racist.
However he defended himself in an email to CNBC, saying: “If stating some historical facts makes me a racist, then I suppose that I am a racist. For years, Japanese were condemned because they denied the Nanking massacre.”
Dr Doom has hit headlines in the past for his stark warnings of imminent economic chaos.
He recently predicted a sharp downturn and stock market crash as bad as the 2008 financial crisis, warning investors are too complacent when it comes to risk.
He previously said billions of pounds worth of holdings will be lost when stocks fall a huge 40 per cent.
However his statements about race could prove to be even more controversial than his dark economic predictions.