Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Billionaire investor George Soros said a “bloodletting” may be coming for leveraged buyouts and commercial real estate amid the worst slowdown in 70 years.

“In commercial real estate and leveraged buyouts, the bloodletting is yet to come,” Soros said today during a lecture organized by the Central European University in Budapest, where he was born. “These factors will continue to weigh on the American economy, and the American consumer will no longer be able to serve as the motor for the world economy.”

Lenders worldwide have logged $1.66 trillion of writedowns on bad loans since the start of the credit crisis in 2007, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Moody’s Investors Service expects the global speculative default rate to peak at 12.5 percent this quarter as the U.S. and European economies struggle to recover. The rate rose to 12 percent in the third quarter, from 2.8 percent a year earlier, Moody’s said Oct. 6.

The global economic recovery is “liable to run out of steam,” and a “double dip” recession may follow in 2010 or 2011, said the 79-year-old Soros.

To contact the reporter on this story: Zoltan Simon in Budapest at zsimon@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 30, 2009 09:39 EDT