Nouriel Roubini, one of the few economists who foretold much of the current financial turmoil, opines that the banking and credit crisis is still far from over. In an interview today with Reuters, he also commented that Treasury Secretary Geithner was probably correct to be vague in his comments on the banking situation this week since buying overpriced, toxic assets in failing banks may not be in best interests of the U.S. unless it proceeds tactically and effectively.
When asked, to use a baseball analogy, "What inning are we in?" with regard tot he crisis, Professor Roubini, who tends to be bearish, predicts that we are still in the 3rd or 4th inning, and that it is still early to hope for a rapid recovery. Further issues, such as credit card, auto loans, personal loans, student loans, and other defaults likely still lie ahead as the economy and jobs picture continues to worsen.
Reuters interview with NYU Professor Nouriel Roubini here:
http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=99068&newsChannel=businessNews
In the relentlessly bullish Wall Street Journal this weekend, Professor Roubini, AKA "Dr. Doom" discusses the value of the temporary nationalization of key failing banks which could then be cleaned up and resold to the private sector. Roubini also talks about the failure of the financial press to act as more than cheerleaders during the good times. The failure of investigations of businesses (such as Madoff, presumably) which did too good for too long, as well as for journalists to generally challenge the conventional wisdom, likely contributed in some way, no matter how small, to the current crisis. Roubini in the WSJ interview predicts the nationalization of banks to occur with the next six months; he suggests the approval of this as a temporary measure by Greenspan and GOP Senator Lindsey Graham, will no doubt provide cover to the Obama administration.
The Wall Street Journal interview here:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123517380343437079.html
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