In pursuit of understanding ALL the bailouts
From the blog Fabius Maximus: The response by major national governments to the Greek crisis is rational, and inevitable (“The hidden key to understanding Europe’s crisis — and ours” May 11, 2010)
Short and to the point. Recommended.
Thumbs up on EU bailout: Nouriel Roubini
I’ve been nosing around online during the past couple of days to see what leading financial experts and economists are saying about the trillion dollar bailout that the European Union leaders announced Sunday. Easily found some boos and hisses: fears that the EU is going down the same path of moral hazard that some say the U.S. has taken, for example. There’s a sample round-up of quotes and links here.
But I’ve been especially on the lookout for Nouriel Roubini’s reaction, given the extraordinary accuracy of his longstanding predictions on the 2008 financial crisis. And his verdict on this weekend’s EU bailout decision is a thumbs up, generally speaking.
In an article yesterday on CNBC.com, Roubini was quoted as saying (“European Rescue Could Work: Nouriel Roubini” May 11, 2010):
Roubini believes the sheer size of the rescue package will therefore halt the threat of contagion.
The amount, in addition to European Central Bank liquidity facilities and quantitative easing, “comfortably covers the worst case scenario and should thus help fight contagion,” he wrote.
And in a comprehensive interview with CNN Money on Monday (video below), Roubini also expressed his approval of the EU action. Here he offers his views on what he considers the risk level of other European countries, especially those of the acronym PIIGs (Italy comes out not-so-bad here, it’s good to hear).
