Oct 4, 2012

We Are In The Process Of Very Painful Deleveraging In Advanced Economies

We’re in the process of very painful deleveraging in advanced economies. We started the crisis with too much private debt and now we have too much public debt and deficits. Research suggests that usually a deleveraging cycle can last up to a decade.

The crisis in 2007, now we are in 2012 and therefore the process of deleveraging in the United States, in the euro zone, in the U.K. and Japan is barely mid-stream. In the U.S. we postponed the deleveraging of the public sector and the housing sector, and therefore, economic growth will is anemic. Therefore, the only thing we can do, given we don’t have the fiscal tool, is use the monetary policy. - in Bloomberg

Nouriel Roubini is an American economist. He teaches at New York University's Stern School of Business and is the chairman of Roubini Global Economics.