Spain's newly announced recession won't be ending any time soon and it could force the U.S. stock market to fall anywhere between 10 percent and 20 percent, economist Harry Dent told CNBC Monday.
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"Spain is going to default. The markets are in total denial on this," Dent, author of "The Great Crash Ahead," told CNBC's "Squawk on the Street." "It’s a question of whether it’s going to happen sooner or later."
Dent spoke after Standard & Poor's downgraded 16 Spanish banks and the nation announced first-quarter gross domestic product figures that showed the country to be in recession.
Spain's problems are far worse than what happened in Greece, he added.
"Spain has higher unemployment than Greece, higher total public and private debt than Greece," as well as a bigger housing bubble, a higher percentage of subprime mortgages, and the country has "one of the highest percentages of debt owed to foreigners," Dent said.
He called Spain one of those nations that are "too big to fail, too big to bail."
