Roubini - When the Next Crash Comes

Economist Nouriel Roubini skyrocketed to fame as the first to foretell the crash of 2007/2008 (a claim that overlooks the even earlier warnings from Stiglitz and Krugman).

In 2011 Roubini sparked controversy by writing that capitalism was self-destructing, much as Karl Marx predicted.



Now, writing in The Guardian, Roubini warns of what may befall us in the anticipated crash of 2020. This time there'll be no repeat of 2007-8. Back then governments were relatively flush and able to fund bailouts and stimulus spending. Today, they're broke, their treasuries bare.

Roubini can't predict what our governments will do when the public demands they 'do something NOW, but he warns that "'crazy' policy will become a foregone conclusion." The only question is whether they'll do more harm than good.

In other words, we're heading for a crap shoot.

The Rehabilitation of Marx. Happy 200th, Karl!

Tomorrow is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx.

I first encountered the Communist Manifesto in officer school. I understood almost none of it but I discovered that dismissing it as "Commie crap" was enough for a passing grade. Small mercies.

It was almost seven years ago that I posted a Wall Street Journal interview with American economist, Nouriel Roubini, in which he maintained that Marx has been proven right, capitalism will destroy itself through the destructive transfer of income from labour to capital leading to an economic death spiral.



In recent years there's been something of a consensus built around the idea that Marx may have been radical but he was probably right. Today's New York Times has a feature op-ed, "Happy Birthday, Karl Marx. You Were Right!"

Even though Karl and his kin rest in north London's Highgate Cemetery, for most of his dirt nap he's been scorned as a subversive, a threat to the natural order of free enterprise. It's nice to see him rehabilitated. After all, it looks like he was right.

"Workers of all lands unite" indeed.