Economist Nouriel Roubini earned the nickname “Dr Doom” after warning about the 2008 Global Financial Crisis in advance, in 2006, in a speech at the IMF, when much of Wall Street was optimistic.
By treating the US financial system not as an immune superpower but as a troubled emerging market burdened by a massive current account deficit, Roubini warned that loose lending standards, rampant subprime mortgages, and high household debt would trigger widespread defaults. He correctly predicted that the ensuing housing bubble burst would freeze mortgage-backed securities, collapse major banks and mortgage lenders, and ultimately spark a severe global recession through highly interconnected international financial markets.
