It wasn't all that long ago that predicting calamity for the stock market would earn you a reputation for eccentricity -- the forecasting world's equivalent of the weird uncle you tolerate but try to avoid at family reunions.

Now it's a route to celebrity. For every disgraced Wall Street titan that epitomizes the recent financial meltdown, there is a market watcher who claims to have seen the whole thing coming. Those folks are now basking in the attention that comes from dire predictions. The biggest example, of course, is Nouriel Roubini, the New York University economist who famously wrote in early 2008 the credit crisis would ring up $2 trillion worth of losses, earning him the comic-book-villain-worthy nickname of Dr. Doom.

See the 10 most pessimistic market watchers.

These days, though, the tea leaves are getting harder to read. While stocks remain volatile -- as seen Tuesday when the Dow dropped 382 pionts -- the Obama administration is intent on crafting policies to help both corporations and consumers. Surely, that's enough to make a glum market prognosticator optimistic, right?

Not so for the people below. Whether its rising unemployment, inflation or bungled government spending, these soothsayers sound more like doomsdayers. From another 40% drop in the S&P 500 to potential black holes that could wreak havoc, here's a look at some of the most pessimistic experts we could find. It's a club that could give Dr. Doom a run for his money. (Hint: A 5 on the Doom Factor Scale is the most dire prediction.)

Doug Noland: Manufacturing Results

Portfolio Manager
Federated Prudent Bear (BEARX)

This fund is something of an oddity is the mutual fund world: It is set up specifically to profit from down markets. So it's no surprise that Noland, the fund's senior portfolio manager, has made his mark and his money -- looking at worst-case scenarios. (The fund returned 27.4% over the past year vs. a 36.2% loss for the S&P.) In a recent commentary he says recovery is far off. Unfortunately, over many years we had gotten to the point that all we were trading for imports were financial claims," he says.

Dire Prediction:
U.S. is doomed unless it rebuilds its manufacturing base. "To really turn things around, we need to build an economy where we can produce things, and there is very little being done today that addresses this fundamental requirement.

Doom Factor:

Harry Markopolos: Blundering Bureaucrats

Independent Fraud Investigator

Arguably, the roots of our current crisis were sown in lax regulation of the finance industry. Better regulation, the optimists say, will save us from repeating our mistakes. Markopolos doesn t agree. The whistleblower, who since 2000 tried in vain to alert the SEC to the alleged $50 billion Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme, testified recently before Congress and offered little hope the agency s performance could be improved.

Dire Prediction:
The government isn't capable of stopping future scams. If you flew the entire SEC staff to Boston and sent them to Fenway Park for the afternoon, they would not be able to find first base."

Doom Factor:

Meredith Whitney: Bad Bank Is a Bad Idea

Banking Analyst
Oppenheimer & Co.

Whitney, who's married to a professional wrestler, gained notoreity for making shrewd calls throughout the housing and credit crises. When subprime lending peaked in 2005, she warned of unprecedented losses for careless lenders. Since then she's been spot on, including predicting Citigroup (C) would have to cut its dividend.

Dire Prediction:
The Treasury's rescue plan won't work. "We do not believe a 'bad bank' structure addresses the root problem of contracting system capital."

Doom Factor:

Barry Knapp: Heading Lower -- Again

U.S. Portfolio Strategist
Barclays (BCS)

Last year Bloomberg polled leading U.S. equity strategists for their S&P 500 forecasts. The average was a 17% year-over-year gain. Knapp was the reason the estimate wasn t higher. At the time he set a 12-month price target on the S&P of 874, which would have constituted a 3.2% dip. It only took 12 days to hit that mark.

Dire Prediction:
Government policy is masking the true economic picture. "Since December, we have been expecting a retest of the November low. We believe that the policy euphoria associated with the 'bad bank' plan will prove to be short lived."

Doom Factor:

Niall Ferguson: Forecasting Follies

Professor of History, Harvard University
Author, The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World

Ferguson calls the current crisis the Great Repression and says it s the worst in 70 years. While historians always look backwards, he s taken a pessimistic, futuristic approach in his latest essay published in the Financial Times, An Imaginary Retrospective of 2009. There s little doubt about his outlook: [2009 was] when people finally gave up trying to predict the year ahead."

Dire Prediction:
We'll look back on this year and realize "every forecast had to be revised usually downwards at least three times.

Doom Factor:

Gerald Celente: Real Estate in Ruins

Futurist & CEO
Trends Research Institute

Celente, a forecaster who s no stranger to the spotlight, claims to have predicted the 1987 market crash, the Asian financial crisis a decade later and last year s sharp consumer downsizing. The days of building big houses, driving big cars and discretionary spending in excess of earnings, will draw to a close in 2008," he predicted in an article.

Dire Prediction:
A collapse of commercial real estate. Celente sees "thinly-shopped, half-vacant malls," offices buildings with "vacant floors and empty cubicles" and "abandoned, untended business and industrial parks."

Doom Factor:

Paul Ballew: Busted Baby Boomers

Senior Vice President
Nationwide

Ballew has been sounding the alarm about the U.S.'s low savings rates. Before the recent economic crisis, only 40% to 45% of people were on track to retire at comparable standards of living to their working income. Now those same people have seen $7 trillion in retirement savings and real estate value evaporate.

Dire Prediction:
Baby boomers go poor. It s a ticking time bomb. The crisis of the moment has put [the savings] crisis on the back burner. There are 70 million to 80 million baby boomers retiring soon, and there are underfunded obligations and underfunded promises.

Doom Factor:

David Rosenberg: $20 Trillion Vanishes

Chief North American Economist
Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAC)

Rosenberg -- a Merrill veteran -- notes the first government bank rescue plan pushed the S&P 500 to 1,255 on Sept. 19, but couldn't get it to stay there. Any new plan may have the same gravity-defying impact. "Most folks we talk to have the same euphoric look in their eye with the latest 'aggregator bank' idea," he says, "as if this is now going to be the savior for the credit cycle." (Think his new bosses agree?)

Dire Prediction:
Households lose $20 trillion once the dust settles on the downturn and any government action won't minimize that amount.

Doom Factor:

Albert Edwards: Revolution in China?

Cross Asset Strategist
Societe Generale

As the cross asset strategist for SG -- that's a fancy name for a global market watcher -- he's been bearish for more than a decade. So'e he's closely watched for any signs of optimism, as when one web site proclaimed him turning bullish late last year. Really? As recently as Jan. 15 he was predicting the S&P 500 would hit 500 by the end of the first quarter. (It's at 821 now.) We'd like to see him truly optimistic.

What about 2009? "While economic data increasingly reflects depression rather than a deep recession, the real surprise may lie elsewhere," he said. "It is becoming clear that the Chinese economy is imploding and this raises the possibility of regime change. To prevent this, the authorities would likely devalue the yuan."

Dire Prediction
"A subsequent trade war could see a re-run of the Great Depression."

Doom Factor

Roberto Casadio, Sergio Fabi and Benjamin Harms: Don't Flip the Switch

Scientists
University of Bologna (Italy) and the University of Alabama

Even a stock market where the Dow is below 8,000 won't seem all that bad if the planet is sucked into a black hole. So we felt obligated to include this trio however far fetched their prognosis may seem. They have warned the tiny, super gravitational black holes created by Large Hadron Collider, a huge, $4.6 billion particle accelerator that is suppose to help us understand the beginnings of the universe, could last as long as a second--an eternity in particle physics. These three are credible scientists, however their views put them at odds with the consensus (most scientists have dismissed concerns about the LHC).

Dire Prediction:
While Earth may not vanish like the island on Lost, the experts are concerned about the unknown that could happen during that one second interval. "We conclude the growth of black holes to catastrophic size does not seem possible. Nonetheless, it remains true that the expected decay times are much longer than is typically predicted by other models."

Doom Factor: