The stock market is out of sync with Main Street, billionaire investor Sam Zell said Wednesday.
"The best example I can give you was [a week ago] Monday when the stock market was ... down 300 [points] and everything was horrific," Zell said. "I looked at the screen and said I don't think there's anything that I want to buy."
"I didn't see anything that jumped up and said ... that's value," he said. "We subsequently had a recovery that I don't think fits any economic judgment."
He added, "There's a significant missing of demand, not only in the United States but worldwide."
The chairman of Equity Group Investments told CNBC's "Squawk Box" there continues to be a disparity between reality and Wall Street.
The last time he was on the program in April, Zell predicted a correction in the stock market, which came to pass in recent months.
He said Wednesday that understanding what quantitative easing and low interest rates from the Federal Reserve actually means for stocks remains a long way off.
"There are people who say we may see more quantitative easing as the [economic] slowdown continues," Zell pointed out, but argued the Fed has been too easy. "I think we've allowed interest rates to be too low for too long."
He said near-zero percent rates for six years "changes behavior," taking away the urgency to do deals and make investments. "The Fed should have raised a long time ago," he said.
"The [U.S.] economy is at the moment is OK, but so much of the economy is predicated on noneconomic issues," he said. "There's an awful lot of equity money fueling jobs out there."
Zell also described what he called "a lot of substandard jobs that now qualify as being employed but don't create any opportunity for these people to grow further."
Equity Group Investments, founded by Zell more than four decades ago, started and remains heavily focused in real estate. The firm also has equity stakes in energy, logistics, manufacturing, transportation and communications, as well as fixed-income interests in public and private companies.
