SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — ‘He’s known for his prediction of a “100-year bear market. “One thing I’ve repeated consistently,” Robert Prechter, author of “At The Crest of the Wave” and “The New Science of Socionomics,” told me years ago, “is that the great bear market will take the DJIA at least below 1,000 and likely to below 400. Precedents for this severe a decline are the English stock prices in 1720-1722 and American stock prices in 1929-1932.”

Yes, Prechter’s a permabear, But his success as a forecaster dates back to 1978 when he predicted a “raging bull market of the 1980s.” Nobody believed him back then either. Later he was called “Guru of the Decade” by the Financial News Network. The title “Dr. Boom” would have fit too.

But today Prechter is remembered more for his later doomsday predictions. No wonder it’s hard to believe any updates after all these years, especially with the DJIA closing in on its all-time record of 14,164 set in October 2007 before the crash. Nor with CNBC reporting that “after a 13% gain for the S&P in 2012, strategists remain bullish on equities.”

Harder still in a world where Wall Street and global stock markets are dominated by traders who think in milliseconds, million of investors focus on closing prices and CEOs can’t see past quarterly earnings.

In Prechter’s favor, however, is the fact that on an inflation-adjusted basis, America may already be sliding imperceptibly into a 100-year bear. After all, with two market crashes, two huge economic recessions, two costly wars and trillions in debt, Wall Street has indeed fallen behind the 30%-plus inflation rate since the new millennium began.

Moreover, early in 2013 Prechter’s Elliott Wave team said that “if a decline is ahead, it could be much more severe than the one in 2007-09.” Another collapse from 14,164 to 6,440 may be the one that sinks us into a painful bear market, whether a few years or a hundred.

Many other Dr. Dooms predict new 2008 crash, long bear market

Today, Prechter is in great company, one of many other well-known “Dr. Dooms” who have long-term visions, in a myopic world. You’ll see Prechter alongside such other great “Dr. Dooms” as Hong Kong’s Marc Faber ... celebrity economist Nouriel Roubini ... Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz, author of “Freefall” ... $100 billion money manager Jeremy Grantham, who says our GDP is “On the Road to Zero Growth” ... Forbes columnist Gary Shilling, who sees the S&P dropping 45% to 800... historian Niall Ferguson, author of “Colossus: The Rise and Fall of The American Empire” ... hedge fund genius Nassim Taleb, author of “Black Swan” ... former IMF chief economist Simon Johnson, co-author of “White House Burning” and “Doomsday Cycle” ... billionaire trader George Soros, who just made a billion shorting the yen ... economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, whose classic “This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly” says it all ... anthropologist Jared Diamond whose “Collapse” warns us that throughout history civilizations fail because leaders fail to plan and act in time ... and other “Dr.Dooms” we’re tracking.

Robert Prechter

So yes, Prechter and his Dow 400 and 100-year bear-market predictions are in good company. And we even have to include Pimco’s Mohamed El-Erian, who manages a $2 trillion portfolio along with “Bond King” Bill Gross. El-Erian recently warned investors about the “New Normal: Low Growth, Few Jobs.”

America, and other developed countries around the world, are in danger of a global economic collapse, a forecast solidified in a recent National Bureau of Economic Research study by Richard Gordon: “Is U.S. Economic Growth Over?”

Gordon says yes: America’s hopes for 3%-plus growth is dead. Listen closely to why Gordon is a Dr. Doom: For five centuries before the 18th century, the per-capita growth rate was only 0.2% annually. Then during the Industrial Revolution, it “shot up” to 2.5% till 1930 amid endless innovations: Steam engine. Railroads. Electricity. More.

But “it’s been downhill since 1950,” with growth averaging 2.1%: “On this trajectory, the American economy will be back where it started by 2100,” with annual growth of just 0.2%. Why? Too little real innovation.

What really distinguishes these Dr.Dooms is their long-term vision. The others are Wall Street’s insiders. They focus on short-term profits, daily closing prices, quarterly earnings, year-end bonuses. The long term is irrelevant. Public consequences, irrelevant. Global resources impact, irrelevant. Environment, irrelevant. Free-market capitalism in action.

Dr. Doom Nouriel Roubini warns: ‘Prepare for a Perfect Storm’

Neuroscience studies tell us investors have a bullish bias. It’s in our DNA, locked in the brain. Wall Street does too, hence 93% “buy” recommendations. We tracked the damage done to the market for four years leading up to the 2008 crash. Watched the warnings ignored. And repeating since. The collective warnings of all these Dr. Dooms is falling on deaf ears. The investors listen to news media that reinforce a bull bias, like CNBC: S&P’s 13% gain in 2012 that’s got “strategists bullish on equities.”

ZeroHedge recently had the best visual of what’s ahead: “A final parabolic spike up To 1,575 S&P followed by up to 50% market crash.” Yes, we’re on a hyped-up roller-coaster ride, trapped in our naivete, ignorance, denial, riding the parabola up, then shocked awake on a speedy drop, repeating 2008.

Except this time, with all the anger about Treasury and Fed debt, banks won’t get bailed out and a new Glass-Steagall is coming.

Here’s a quick review the macroeconomic dangers Dr. Doom Nouriel Roubini saw in his late January warning on Slate.com: “Prepare for a Perfect Storm.” Our world is a game of dominos, any one of which could put in motion a global economic, market and monetary collapse. Listen:

1. America: We’re still at the edge of a fiscal cliff and markets suffering

“Sooner or later, another ugly fight will take place on the debt ceiling ... Markets may become spooked by another fiscal cliffhanger,” with “a significant amount of drag, about 1.4% of GDP, on an economy that has grown at barely a 2% rate” in recent quarters.

2. Euro zone: Stagnation, recession, austerity, credit crunch continue

Roubini warns: “The monetary union’s fundamental problems have not been resolved. Together with political uncertainty, they will re-emerge with full force ... large and potentially unsustainable stocks of private and public debt remain.” Plus, “aging populations and low productivity growth” will be “eroded in the absence of more aggressive structural reforms to boost competitiveness.”

3. China: Bust in real estate, infrastructure, industry will accelerate

Chinese are relying “on another round of monetary, fiscal, and credit stimulus to prop up an unbalanced and unsustainable growth model based on excessive exports and fixed investment, high saving, and low consumption.” Their new leaders are conservative and “consumption as a share of GDP will not rise fast enough ... So the risk of a hard landing” is rising rapidly.

4. Emerging markets: State capitalism is decelerating growth

Dr. Doom says the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) are now experiencing declining growth: Their “state capitalism ... is the heart of the problem.” He doubts they’ll “embrace reforms aimed at boosting the private sector’s role in economic growth.”

5. Global geopolitical risks: Oil importers face negative economic growth

“Arab Spring is turning into an Arab Winter.” The Middle East to “Afghanistan and Pakistan is socially, economically, and politically unstable ... with Israel refusing “to accept a nuclear-armed Iran ... the drums of actual war will beat harder. The fear premium in oil markets” will “increase oil prices by 20%, leading to negative growth” for all “advanced economies and emerging markets that are net oil importers.”

Yes, Roubini hedges his bet: “While the chance of a perfect storm ... is low,” he warns: Any one of these five trends “alone would be enough to stall the global economy and tip it into recession” as “the downside risks to the global economy are gathering force” in 2013.

Jared Diamond put all the warnings in context in his classic, “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail of Succeed.” “One of the disturbing facts of history is that so many civilizations collapse. Few people, however, least of all our politicians, realize that a primary cause of the collapse of those societies has been the destruction of the natural resources on which they depend. Fewer still appreciate that many of those civilizations share a sharp curve of decline. Indeed, a society’s demise may begin only a decade or two after it reaches its peak population, wealth and power.”

So why do leaders fail us? Diamond says they’re “focused only on issues likely to blow up in the next 90 days,” lacking the will “to make bold, courageous, anticipatory decisions.” Thus short-term thinking and the failure to plan sets the stage for a rapid “sharp curve of decline” ... into a Great Recession 2, Dow 400 and a 100-year bear market. ‘

5 dangers set to trip a 100-year bear market