Nouriel Roubini

"Read and pay attention" (Martin Wolf, the Financial Times): the bestselling author of Crisis Economics argues we are heading toward the worst economic catastrophe of our lifetimes, unless we can defend against ten terrifying threats.

Roughly once a year, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. treasury secretary and in some cases the finance ministers of other G-7 countries will get a call from the finance minister of a large emerging market economy. The emerging market finance minister will indicate that the country is rapidly running out of foreign reserves, that it has lost access to international capital markets and, perhaps, that is has lost the confidence of its own citizens. Without a rescue loan, it will be forced to devalue its currency and default either on its government debt or on loans to the country's banks that the government has guaranteed. This book looks at these situations and the options available to alleviate the problem. It argues for a policy that recognizes that every crisis is different and that different cases need to be handled within a framework that provides consistency and predictability to borrowing countries as well as those who invest in their debt.

About the Author
Nouriel Roubini is an associate professor of economics and international business at the Stern School of Business, New York University. He was a faculty member of the economics department at Yale University (1988-95). He was senior economist for international affairs at the White House Council of Economic Advisers (1998-99) and senior adviser to the undersecretary for international affairs and the director of the Office of Policy Development and Review at the US Treasury Department (1999-2000). He has been a long-time consultant to the International Monetary Fund and a number of other public and private institutions. He is a fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Centre for Economic Policy Research. He is coauthor of Political Cycles: Theory and Evidence (MIT Press, 1997).