Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Nouriel Roubini Responds To Europe Problem and Global Inequality Problem At Davos

This is a link to a couple of video interviews by CNN of Nouriel Roubini at Davos. One of the videos has a focus on Europe. The other is on the worldwide problem of increasing income inequality.

Roubini argues that Europe needs a $2 trillion bazooka to solve its fiscal problems. They must grow their economies or the debt problems will get worse. Debt to GDP ratios cannot improve as long as GDP is falling. He believes that the euro is overpriced. It will be difficult to grow the european economy with a high priced euro. He also believes that the imposition of austerity only worsens the outlook for all of Europe.

He argues that income inequality has fueled social unrest all over the world. The percent of income going to capital versus labor is at levels that prevailed prior to the Great Depression. This is an economic problem as well as a fairness issue. Lower income households spend most of their income while high income households save a large part of their income. This leads to lower aggregate demand which is the problem that we face in most countries. ( We have tried to fix the problem by making debt more available to households as compensation for slow growth in income. Household debt deleveraging is now a demand reduction problem as well)

Roubini has been one of the few economists who were ahead of the curve on the real estate bubble and pending problems in finance. He is more outspoken than most economists but he has made better calls than most. I tend to agree with his analyses.

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