Nouriel Roubini sees doom if GOP takes power

Prof. Nouriel Roubini was one of only a very few national economists who accurately predicted the housing meltdown and resulting deep recession. A professor of economics at New York University, Roubini has been described as "a prophet" at the IMF and was rated number 4 in Foreign Policy journal's Top 100 Global Thinkers.

In an opinion piece for the Financial Times, Roubini credits the Obama administration's stimulus plan with preventing another Great Depression.

However he warns that if Congress becomes dominated by the Republicans as some are predicting, we could be headed for more economic gloom.

He said the U.S. remains on an "unsustainable fiscal course" and the likely make-up of Congress after elections next Tuesday, in which the Republicans look set for strong gains, virtually takes fiscal reform off the agenda.

The resulting instability could be aggravated by a trigger mechanism according to Roubini including a state government going into debt default.

"The worst of the coming fiscal train wreck will be prevented by the Fed's easing. But the risk is (Obama) ... will then preside over ... a Japanese style stagnation, where growth is barely positive, and deflationary pressures and high unemployment linger."

Reading over the GOP "Pledge to America," one is hard pressed to find any fault in Roubini's reasoning.  The Republicans are basically promising the same types of economic strategies that got us into this mess in the first place.