The latest prediction from a famous analyst is the fall of the American economy

During his 54 years as a financial analyst, Richard X. Bove perfected the art of attracting attention.

Through thousands of newspaper interviews, cable news appearances and radio segments, Mr. Bove turned what might have been a dull career, judging by the numbers, into a more flashy one. As he exerted his influence over the economy and the inner workings of Wall Street, he often went against conventional wisdom and made enemies along the way. By his own recollection, he never turned down a media request; American Banker once called him “the country's most quotable banking analyst.”

Last week, just hours after landing a spot on Bloomberg television, the 83-year-old announced his retirement. He took that weekend off – and jumped right back in. In an interview with The New York Times, Mr. Bove (pronounced “boo-VAY”), who also goes by Dick, shared a bleak view of the American economy and his former profession.

“The dollar is ready to be the world's reserve currency,” Mr. Bove said matter-of-factly, sitting in an armchair outside his home office just north of Tampa, from where he predicted China will overtake the U.S. economy. No other analyst will say the same because, as he put it, they are “monks praying for money,” and are unwilling to speak out about the mainstream financial system in which they operate.

Many analysts are rewarded for coming up with unique but insignificant and “arcane” ideas, he said, peppering his criticism with invective. Mr. Bove has worked at 17 stockbroking firms during his career.

As he spoke, a technician was trying to restore the internet in his home after his last employer, boutique brokerage Odeon Capital, pulled the plug on his last day.

Mr. Bove, who started his career before ATMs were common, appeared in the media in the late 1970s, when he was a construction industry analyst with a pessimistic view of housing that didn't always materialize.

He soon switched to the financial sector, which put him in the front row of the savings and loan crisis that affected more than a thousand banks in the 1980s and 1990s. He later described how surviving banks made big bets that would lead to the 2008 financial crisis and a raft of new regulations.

One of Mr Bove's best-known appeals: identifying a “powder keg” in the housing market as early as 2005 (correct) and predicting that some large banks would quickly recover afterwards (wrong). His 2013 book, “Guardians of Prosperity: Why America Needs Big Banks,” argued that the crackdown on the sector would curtail lending to small businesses.

He has now changed his position on the primacy of US banks, especially after last spring's regional banking crisis. He sees the relocation of American production as the ultimate threat to the financial sector and the dollar, because “the people who make the goods elsewhere are gaining more and more control over the means of production and therefore more and more control over the global economy and therefore more and more control about the global economy.” more and more control over the money.”

Mr. Bove was fired twice from major companies, Dean Witter Reynolds and Raymond James, in the first case for being too optimistic about bank stocks. The now defunct BankAtlantic unsuccessfully sued him over a critical 2008 investigative report.

The headline of a Times article about that episode called him “The Loneliest Analyst.” One way that's still true is that he endorses cryptocurrency — an area few other financial analysts will focus on — which he sees as a natural beneficiary of the dollar's decline.

Many on Wall Street viewed Mr. Bove as an idiot or an attention seeker — but many others listened. Those who paid attention included JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who generally praises Mr. Bove. Mr. Dimon said through a spokesman that he had read Mr. Bove's work to the end and found it “enlightening.”

One who's clearly not a fan: Brian Moynihan, the head of Bank of America, who hasn't spoken to the analyst in a decade since Mr. Bove visited the bank's Manhattan headquarters and told executives it was foolish to to expand their investment banking activities. (A bank spokesman said the head of investor relations had no recollection of the conversation.)

Mr. Bove now says he was wrong, and considers himself amused that he wasn't invited back.

“I enjoyed being a nuisance sometimes,” he said, pausing for effect. “A lot of the time.”

Mr. Bove, a native of Queens who has never quite shaken his New York accent despite living in Florida for 30 years, attributes the longevity of his career to an independent streak, including a reluctance to endorse the work of a rival analyst to read. He readily admits that luck has also played a role, and marvels at his good health despite the fact that he doesn't exercise regularly and tends to drink straight, top-shelf tequila.

He said he made more than $1 million in one year, but otherwise averaged $700,000 in annual salary. (The executives of the major banks he supervised can receive more than $30 million a year.) That helped him buy a series of timeshares and invest in a handful of largely failed business ventures, including four now-closed pizzerias in the Tampa area.

Has he ever tried to make a cake?

“No, I never did that,” he said. “That was the problem.”

Alain Delaqueriere research contributed.