Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Gasparino Takes on Roubini and The Catfish

Charles Gasparino has a hit piece out on Nouriel Roubini.

In it he charges that Roubini should not get credit for calling the housing bubble. If you are a tough grader, you have to side with Gasparino. Roubini was in the neighborhood of warning about the economy and housing but never quite nailed the entire thing down.

The Catfish, Felix Salmon, comes to Roubini's defense, which results in Gasparino going after Salmon (The play by play, with video is here.). I am hesitating and will not call this a Catfish Fight.

In truth, Roubini is a Keynesian theorist, and on the bell curve of Keynesian theorists, he is one of the worst---way out on the left tail. That said, he watches data very closely and has put together a team that is top notch as far as assembling economic data.  I always look carefully at any data put out by Roubini and company, there are insights you will not find anywhere else.

Bottom Line: Ignore Roubini's forecasts and theoretical explanations but always look at the data he is putting out.

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