Archive for February, 2006

• With the US current account deficit close to a trillion dollars of course foreigners will soon own most of the US capital stock

  Nouriel Roubini February 22nd, 2006

  The current political saga and debate about the purchase by a Dubai-based company of the management of six US ports misses the most crucial point: with a US current account deficit running towards $900b this year and probably above one trillion $ next year, in a matter of a few years foreigners may end up owning [...]

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• Aftermath of Tremonti’s Temper Tantrum in Davos: A Healthy Debate in Europe on the Risks of a EMU Break-Up

  Nouriel Roubini February 19th, 2006

  The incident in Davos - where Italian Economy Minister Tremonti went into a temper tantrum against me as I dared to suggest that Italy may be forced to exit the EMU in a few years unless serious economic reforms are adopted - has had the side effect of opening a more serious discussion in Italy and Europe on the future [...]

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• Orwellian Chutzpah and Doublespeak in the Economic Report of the President: the US Current Account Deficit Becomes the “US Capital Account Surplus”

  Nouriel Roubini February 13th, 2006

  Paul Krugman has recently written about the Bush Administration attitude of changing unpleasant facts that do not square with its ideological biases. A recent example was the attempt to use the nebulous concept of “dynamic scoring” to “prove” - using ”voodoo economics” cabal - that tax cuts actually increase revenues while all respected empirical studies show that such cuts reduce, on net, tax revenues. [...]

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