Richard Rainwater has made more than $2 billion by looking for economic “blowups” then investing at the bottom of the market. In the mid-90s, when there was panic selling in Houston real estate, Rainwater bought up 15 million square feet and tripled his investment when the market recovered.

Lately, Rainwater has been reading everything he can get his hands on about peak oil. While he sees another enormous moneymaking opportunity coming, this one “is the first scenerio I’ve seen where I question the survivability of mankind.” He doesn’t necessarily believe the gloomiest of the prophets but he can’t discount them either.

We’ve got a lot of things going on simultaneously. The world as we know it is unwinding with respect to Social Security, pensions, Medicare. We’re going to have dramatically increased taxes in the U.S. I believe we’re going into a world where there’s going to be more hostility. More people are going to be asking, ‘Why did God do this to us?’ Whatever God they worship. Alfred Sloan said it a long time ago at General Motors, that we’re giving these things during good times. What happens in bad times? We’re going to have to take them back, and then everybody will riot.’ And he’s right.

Rainwater says he is going to open a “for profit survivability center,” and no one around him knows if he’s joking or not. “I just want people to look out,” says Rainwater, “‘Cause it could be bad.”