Nouriel Roubini: American Economy Terrible Shape

Nouriel Roubini: American Economy Terrible

According to New York University professor Nouriel Roubini, the big numbers put up in the fourth-quarter were virtually meaningless, and the 5.7 percent economic growth was bad news when taking into consideration the actual facts relating to the data.

For example, most of the 5.7 percent "growth" is attributed to replenishing inventories, which when that is set aside, it only came to a little more than a growth rate of 2.2 percent, with Roubini saying he believes it'll be much worse in the last half of 2010, where he sees economic expansion at an anemic 1.5 percent growth rate.

Talking to Bloomberg Television from the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Nourini said concerning the growth numbers, “The headline number will look large and big, but actually when you dissect it, it’s very dismal and poor. I think we are in trouble.”

Almost all the growth was attributed to one time events according to Roubini, and he sees this as a disaster going forward for the country.

Bizarrely, even Roubini adds while we won't be technically in a recession, it'll feel like a recession. In other words, we're going to be in a recession but he doesn't want to admit it so he doesn't make the Obama administration look like the disaster they really are with the economy.

Along with replenishing inventory, just about the rest of what was called economic growth was artificial, being based on stimulus money rather than increased demand for products and services.

In even worse news, Roubini stated unemployment is going to rise beyond the official 10 percent now, generating more problems for Obama and society at large.

Nouriel Roubini: American Economy Terrible