As someone who has worried for years about the US financial system, I made a special point in 2008 to watch the rise of Nouriel Roubini. I’ve read his RGE Monitor for some time. Just as I’ve read other fine writers who’ve tracked the debt bubble, like Doug Noland, and Russ Winter. When Nouriel was covered by The New York Times Magazine this summer, photographed on a downtown street in somewhat fashionable style, I paused. Were we finally approaching the end of the story?
Becoming famous is intoxicating. Who would have imagined that Roubini, an economist with a professorship and a blog, could explode onto the scene, appearing on every show from Charlie Rose to CNN Money. Of course, the attention is well deserved. As late as last Summer, mainstream economists were dismissive of the idea that the housing bubble would eventually come for us, and practically destroy us. I mark the start of the credit crunch to February 2007, though the signs of it started in Q4 2006 when all the little mortgage brokers started to blow up. Of course, I like many others had already been biting my nails for three years over the US debt and credit situation.
Out of interest this week, I decided to see how Roubini was faring on Google Trends. In the last month, I’ve barely been able to open up any newspaper or website without seeing his name. In particular, Roubini’s name crosses my ticker daily on Twitter.
Here is Roubin’s search result, on Google Trends. Parabolic?
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–Gregor
