• C++ Programming for Financial Engineering
    Highly recommended by thousands of MFE students. Covers essential C++ topics with applications to financial engineering. Learn more Join!
    Python for Finance with Intro to Data Science
    Gain practical understanding of Python to read, understand, and write professional Python code for your first day on the job. Learn more Join!
    An Intuition-Based Options Primer for FE
    Ideal for entry level positions interviews and graduate studies, specializing in options trading arbitrage and options valuation models. Learn more Join!

WSJ interview with Roubini

I completely agree with Roubini, double-dip is coming.
 
I've found quite a few commentators (not just Roubini) quoting Marx in the last year or two -- which is interesting because in most cases I don't think they've read his magnum opus (Capital).
 
Could it be because this is the first time in many years that the top global economies are being faced with the possibility of revolution? Or because the economy next in line is China?

I don't know enough of Marx as I should. I wonder what he would say of our current global environment?
 
I've found quite a few commentators (not just Roubini) quoting Marx in the last year or two -- which is interesting because in most cases I don't think they've read his magnum opus (Capital).

Doubt it. I read "Das Capital". It was a really tough read but we had to do it. Remember this book was written for the working class of the XIX century. The running joke at school was that the working class of the XIX century was better prepare to read and understand that book than the students of the XX century.
 
I don't know enough of Marx as I should. I wonder what he would say of our current global environment?

There were a whole number of things he didn't see, couldn't have seen -- the ecological crisis (including climate change), today's technology, and the financialisation of the economy (he concentrated mostly on the industrial capitalism of his day). But he got some things right: capital's imperative to keep expanding ("growth"), the clash between the interests of capital and labor, the booms and busts resulting from speculation on the one hand and insufficient purchasing power of workers on the other, the unrelenting quest for cheaper labor, markets and resources overseas ("imperialism"), capital's desire for a reserve army of labor, the tendency of profits to stagnate because of production overcapacity. Of the three volumes of Capital, the first two are still worth reading -- though there are now more up-to-date exegeses of Marx's thought as well as thinkers who've revised and updated his perspectives and insights.
 
I'm sorry to say Roubini is a joke. He is an out and out bear. This guy has been wrong a dozen times in last 2 years, and now if is right, it doesn't make him good prophet. This is the same guy who talked about dow @ 5000 since march 2009 till 2010 at every market dip. The moment market rallied, he was back in his cave. The running joke was - buy when Roubini says market's gonna crash.
 
He hasn't really been wrong in the last 2 years, he's just been wrong about the speed at which it's occurring. I think in the past 2 years things have actually deteriorated further - debt has increased, unemployment still high, currency has depreciated...if you will, think of a spring absorbing potential energy...you don't experience the shockwave until the spring is released (a majority of what I'm describing only pertains to the U.S., tho many parts of Europe as well).
 
Back
Top