TNR Profiles Dr. Doom

The New Republic has a profile on Nouriel Roubini, "the economist known to the general public as Dr. Doom, Prophet of the Financial Apocalypse," by Julia Ioffe.

Though he hasn't attacked the Obama administration's policies with Paul Krugman's fury, and though he is no longer the most bearish of the bears, his short-term outlook is still quite bleak: a 36-month downturn, double-digit unemployment, and sluggish, recessionary growth well into 2010. ...

Roubini understood better than anyone just how weak the fundamentals of our economy were. The day after the now-famous 2006 IMF talk, he went on 'Kudlow & Company,' on CNBC. Roubini was, as always, the foil to Kudlow's chipperness. 'All my friends are in a great mood, Nouriel. They're in a terrific mood. They love America,' Kudlow sang. Roubini countered starkly: 'Well, they're all rich,' he said. 'The average American actually is in debt'--a sign to Roubini that housing would only be the catalyst of something larger.