More economists are using the R word
By Charles Paikert
August 14, 2006
The dreaded R word, as in "recession," has begun to rear its ugly head.
New York Times columnist and Princeton University economics professor Paul Krugman has begun discussing what he sees as the increasing likelihood of an economic slowdown.
Meanwhile, Nouriel Roubini, chairman of New York-based Roubini Global Economics LLC, weighed in with a column last week in the Financial Times.
The Federal Reserve Board's failure to raise interest rates last week in an attempt to stave off a recession came "too late," said Mr. Roubini, a professor of economics at New York University's Stern School of Business.
The odds of a recession, he estimated, "have risen since last month from 50% to 70%" due to the housing slowdown, high oil prices and higher interest rates.
For a really gloomy forecast, there is the always reliably loony perennial presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche, who modestly describes himself as "probably the best economist in the world." In his latest campaign literature, he warned: "The entire international financial system could collapse by approximately September of this year."
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