By Mohammed El-Erian in Bloomberg Businessweek, December 5, 2011 (http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-05/pimco-s-el-erian-says-u-s-economic-setting-terrifying-.html)

Nov. 22 (Bloomberg) — Pacific Investment Management Co.’s Chief Executive Officer Mohamed A. El-Erian said U.S. economic conditions are “terrifying” as the nation struggles to recover from recession.

The odds of the U.S. returning to recession are as much as 50 percent, El-Erian said during an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop” with Betty Liu. U.S. economic growth was worse than expected and congressional policy makers are gridlocked over what to do about the economy and the deficit, which risk exacerbating an already weak recovery, he said.

“We have less economic momentum than we thought we had and we have no policy momentum,” said El-Erian, who also serves as co-chief investment officer with Pimco founder Bill Gross at the world’s largest manager of bond funds. Read the rest of this entry »