Dr. Doom and his perpetual crisis (Why is Nouriel Roubini warning about another doomsday?)

National Post ^ | 05/24/2010 | Terence Corcoran

[SeekAndFind]

The week's plunge in stock markets and the decline of the euro have created a perfect backdrop for Dr. Doom. In the midst of all the turmoil, Nouriel Roubini appeared on CNBC to issue fresh warnings of crises still to come. "From here on, I see things getting worse," said Mr. Roubini, predicting another 20% drop in stock prices, a double-dip recession and various national crises in Japan, China and elsewhere.

The timing is perfect for Mr. Roubini, whose new book-- Crisis Economics: A Crash Course in the Future of Finance -- is just hitting bookstores. If you're in the business of selling economic apocalypse as a staple, having what looks like an apocalypse at hand can only boost sales. Crisis Economics (co-authored with historian Stephen Mihm) is the perfect handbook for anyone who likes panics and market roller coasters dished up in glib summaries, sweeping generalizations, frequent bouts of self-congratulation and calls for massive doses of more government intervention.

The Dr. Doom nickname, Mr. Roubini said in a recent interview with the Financial Times, is one that he would now prefer to replace with something else. That can't really be true, since the opening chapter of Crisis Economics (presumably written by Mr. Roubini) begins with repeated and delighted third-person references to "Roubini" as the great doomster who predicted the subprime mortgage meltdown and the 2008 economic crisis. "Those disasters were bad enough," says Mr. Roubini about himself, "but Roubini offered up an even more terrifying scenario."

[agere_contra]

Roubini is an optimist.

[Doogle]

...sooner or later he’s gonna be right..that’s when he writes another book saying so

[Bean Counter]

[broken_arrow1]

When it has been raining for a while, it is easy to forecast more rain.

[SeekAndFind]

sooner or later he’s gonna be right..that’s when he writes another book saying so

Well, Dr. Roubini was one of those who was warning about the Subrpime crisis as early as 2005.

There is a man named Nick Guarino whose newsletter my friend used to subscribe to called the WALL STREET UNDERGROUND. Way back in 1996 when the DOT COM boom was starting, he was warning about a tech meltdown. Had you listened to him early on, you would have missed the 1996-2000 frenzy. However, he turned out to be right 4 years later.

[SeekAndFind]

Here is the financial weather forecaster Dr. Nouriel Roubini in action :

Watch this video

In summary he tells us that Stocks will Fall Another 20%, Get in Cash

[T-Bird45]

...he was warning about a tech meltdown. Had you listened to him early on, you would have missed the 1996-2000 frenzy. However, he turned out to be right 4 years later.

Markets are like sex...timing is everything!

[VOA]

“
Roubini is an optimist.
“

I did get a smile when he told some interviewer that he shouldn’t
buy gold...he should buy spam.
(something you could actually eat when the whole thing goes to h-ll)

[pgkdan]

He sounded very optimistic this morning on Imus as he was touting the VAT tax. According to Roubini we NEED the VAT. He’s a fraud.

[equalitybeforethelaw]

So far Dr. Doom has been correct and everyone else not so much. I wonder why the press wishes to minimize his outlook?

[SeekAndFind]

So far Dr. Doom has been correct and everyone else not so much

I remember Roubini warning about the subprime meltdown in 2006 ( or was it early 2006, can't remember the exact year but it was about that time ).

Nobody took him seriously then as it was the peak of the real estate boom and unemployment was less than 5%.

But hey, so what if you were right once? We'd like to see a track record.

[VegasCowboy]

Well, if you read this column, you’ll see that the National Post isn’t so much “minimizing his outlook” as they are pointing out that he advocates a Keynesian approach to solving our problems and advocates higher taxes to pay for all the government intervention, while ignoring that government intervention caused a lot of our problems in the first place.

Of course, they also point out that a state of perpetual crisis is good for his book-sales.