Nouriel Roubini's latest article in Project Syndicate (http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/roubini43/English) touches a point that has been worrying me for so long: the relation between inequality and the current global economic and political situation. Many people call Roubini Dr Doom and many of his predictions haven't come true. But I do like the kind of analysis and facts that he brings to the public mindspace. We do need people who will keep us honest and not let us get carried away. Roubini's team, Roubini Global,  incidentally, has many Indians contributing. Talk about Indian brain trust contributing to far-reaching contrarian ideas    

Rogoff's interview in McKinsey Quarterly-Worth a look

Eminent Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff's latest  McKinsey Quarterly interview (http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Economic_Studies/Productivity_Performance/Understanding_the_Second_Great_Contraction_An_interview_with_Kenneth_Rogoff_2871) on economic contraction is definitely worth a look. Rogoff has written a great book on the history of economic recessions and I had a great opportunity of interacting with him in June 2010 while researching for one of the Outlook Money Anniversary issue articles. It is amazing the amount of data he and his co-author went through to write the book. Ironically, he was in Spain when I interviewed him over mobile phone. The interview was definitely one of the high points of my journalistic career.    

Eurozone: Our Misplaced Hopes

Went to All India Radio studios on Tuesday as an expert in their stockmarkets programme to   comment on news developments. One of the anchors asked me what I thought of reports that European leaders wouldn't be able to hammer out a solution to the eurozone problem this weekend and whether it wasn't too much to expect something like that over a weekend. I agreed with the anchor and said that the problem was just too big and too messy for a weekend clean-up job. As in every economic crisis driven by a financial crisis, trust and faith become casualties. Somebody has to lend for the borrowers who can't pay. The job was done by financial insitutions for sub-prime guys before many of whom went broke. Governments then stepped in and some of them are now broke for that reason or general over-indulgence. Anybody who is lending now needs an assurance that the money will come back. When governments go broke just who gives that assurance and how? Just how much of your future income do you use to mend your today? You got to be kidding to think that this will blow over soon. How much more time will this take? Some more years? Perhaps.