The global community is facing a host of new threats, which may drive it back to the times of wars, pandemics and famine, renowned economist Nouriel Roubini told the Financial Times.
According to the man dubbed ‘Doctor Doom’ by Wall Street, the period of optimism and growth that lasted for the past 75 years is an exception for humanity, not a rule.
“I think that really the world is on a slow-motion train wreck. There are major new threats that did not exist before, and they’re building up and we’re doing very little about it,” the economist stated.
Born in 1958, Roubini says he never before had to worry about wars among great powers, climate change, global pandemics, deglobalization or trade wars.
“Did I worry about major severe recession or great depression? Of course not. Did I worry about financial crisis? I never heard about financial crisis…This time is different, but it’s different relative to the last 75 years of relative peace, progress and prosperity, because before then the history of humanity was a history of famine, war, disease and genocides and so on,” he warned.
According to Roubini, politicians and economists are systematically making mistakes with their efforts to reign in the worsening economic crisis. For instance, he said they seriously underestimate the effort and time it would take to battle inflation. The general consensus is “six months of recession, big deal,” Roubini said, but voiced his disagreement with the notion.
“No, this is not going to be a short and shallow recession, it’s going to be deep and protracted.”
The economist believes the situation in Europe “is much worse,” with the UK “already in a stagflation,” and prospects of negative economic growth ahead.
Roubini added that due to both public and private global debt being at the current level, at 350% of global GDP in 2019 from 220% in 1999, central banks around the world are unlikely to hike rates far enough to battle the economic crisis.
The only thing that could help cope with all the global threats, according to Roubini, is technological advances, like breakthroughs in nuclear fusion.
“It will take 15 to 20 years. But in 15 and 20 years we will already be doomed,” the economist concluded.
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