"The bear market is starting. When you compare equities to bonds and cash I don't think equities are very positive," Faber said in an interview.

The S&P 500 has risen steadily since hitting its lowest point of the previous decade in March 2009.

Markets have been more turbulent in recent months as debt crises in both the US and the euro zone threatened to damage growth there.

"The Treasury market is telling you that the economy is in recession," said Faber. "So if the bond market is telling you that the economies of the Western world are weakening, but at the same time the stock market is still relatively high, I think the stock market is vulnerable."

He added his voice to those criticizing politicians in the US and elsewhere over the current problems.

"The politicians are all useless individuals. Nobody is reducing the problems in the US or Europe, just putting on a band aid and postponing the problems endlessly," he said.

"Some analysts think that there's a chance economic data will surprise on the upside but I think, if anything, it will be on the downside," Faber added.

He believes that some companies will start to disappoint in the second half of this year.

China Bigger Risk

Second-quarter results so far have been a mixed bag, with major European banks such as BNP Paribas and Barclays announcing disappointing results on Tuesday, while earlier in the week Motorola and engineering giant EADS performed better than expected.

The most recent plan for US debt, which the Senate will vote on Tuesday afternoon, involves more than $1 trillion of spending cuts and a hard-won raising of the debt ceiling.

Faber argues that China disappointing "is a much bigger risk for the global economy than the US because the US is no longer a major commodities buyer".