Well-known investment newsletter author and TV pundit Marc Faber suffered a swift backlash after claiming that the US had been successful only because it was settled by whites, writing “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 spelt out,” the Swiss forecaster known as Dr Doom wrote in a newsletter for investors seen by the FT.

Mr Faber, a former investment banker at Drexel Burnham Lambert’s Hong Kong office who now lives in Thailand, is best known for his permanently bearish views on markets and the economy, which he shares through his “Gloom, Boom and Doom Report” newsletter.