Yikes! Nouriel Roubini Gets Bullish on Global Economy

To be fair, Roubini is better at economics than he is at business or investments. See links after the jump.
From Project Syndicate (Dec. 31, 2013):
Slow Growth and Short Tails

NEW YORK – The global economy had another difficult year in 2013. The advanced economies’ below-trend growth continued, with output rising at an average annual rate of about 1%, while many emerging markets experienced a slowdown to below-trend 4.8% growth. After a year of subpar 2.9% global growth, what does 2014 hold in store for the world economy?

The good news is that economic performance will pick up modestly in both advanced economies and emerging markets. The advanced economies, benefiting from a half-decade of painful private-sector deleveraging (households, banks, and non-financial firms), a smaller fiscal drag (with the exception of Japan), and maintenance of accommodative monetary policies, will grow at an annual pace closer to 1.9%.

Moreover, so-called tail risks (low-probability, high-impact shocks) will be less salient in 2014. The threat, for example, of a eurozone implosion, another government shutdown or debt-ceiling fight in the United States, a hard landing in China, or a war between Israel and Iran over nuclear proliferation, will be far more subdued.

Still, most advanced economies (the US, the eurozone, Japan, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada) will barely reach potential growth, or will remain below it. Households, banks, and some non-financial firms in most advanced economies remain saddled with high debt ratios, implying continued deleveraging. High budget deficits and public-debt burdens will force governments to continue painful fiscal adjustment. And an abundance of policy and regulatory uncertainties will keep private investment spending in check.

The outlook for 2014 is dampened by longer-term constraints as well. Indeed, there is a looming risk of secular stagnation in many advanced economies, owing to the adverse effect on productivity growth of years of underinvestment in human and physical capital. And the structural reforms that these economies need to boost their potential growth will be implemented too slowly.

While the eurozone’s tail risks are lower, its fundamental problems remain unresolved: low potential growth; high unemployment; still-high and rising levels of public debt; loss of competitiveness and slow reduction of unit labor costs (which a strong euro does not help); and extremely tight credit rationing, owing to banks’ ongoing deleveraging. Meanwhile, progress toward a banking union will be slow, while no steps will be taken toward establishing a fiscal union, even as austerity fatigue and political risks in the eurozone’s periphery grow....MORE

October 11, 2011
Roubini's Firm Losing Money, Up For Sale

From CNBC:
Roubini Global Economics, the economics research firm begun by noted economist Nouriel Roubini, is for sale, according to sources who have been approached by an investment bank conducting an auction for the firm.

According to people who have seen the offering book for the sale, the firm is projected to have revenues of $14 million this year and it will post a loss of roughly $2 million dollars, and projects eight percent revenue growth into next year followed by 40 percent revenue growth in 2013....MORE

November 9, 2009
A Chart of Roubini’s Horrible Track record in 2009
From Wall Street Cheat Sheet:

As many of you know, Wall St. Cheat Sheet is on a mission to expose some of the biggest frauds on Wall Street. Most recently we did an extensive open-source research project on Nouriel Roubini and Jim Cramer. As a follow up, a new friend Nadeem Walayat posted a nice chart (including full citations) of Roubini’s major money-losing calls in 2009:

I’ve come to the conclusion that the only people ignorant enough to defend Roubini are those who accidentally listened to him during the one brief moment he was right (for all the wrong reasons). If you followed his bearish advice in 2005, you would have either missed the entire rally through 2007, or you would have lost money shorting the market. If you would have followed his advice starting on March 9, 2009, you would have lost a ton of money. We should also note that Roubini said Oil would stay below $40 a barrel for all of 2009. Ouch.

Anyway, once again, science and facts prove that there are many “gurus” on TV telling the investing public how to invest, yet they cannot beat an ETF.

And more recently:
Feb. 2013
"Roubini: Short-Term Bullish, Long-Term Catastrophic"
Feb. 2012 
Watching for the Asteroid: Roubini Turning Bullish