09 Mar 2009

Dr. Doom Ups the Ante

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I can’t believe this isn’t getting more coverage. According to the financial wizards at CNBC:

Roubini, who is also known as “Dr. Doom,” told CNBC that the risk of a total meltdown has been reversed for now but that the economy is going through “a death by a thousand cuts.” He also said that “most of the U.S. financial institutions are entirely insolvent.”

Earlier in the day, Roubini spoke to the CBOE Risk Management Conference and said he believes total losses could peak at $3.6 trillion in the financial system, with half of that being borne by banks and bank dealers and the other half borne by hedge funds and pension funds, among others.

He said that while U.S. GDP next year could be zero, global GDP could dip into negative territory.

I haven’t seen anyone else claim US output will be zero next year, and I don’t even know what it would mean for global GDP to become negative. Would barbers go around chloroforming people and giving them awful haircuts? This recession is serious!

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