Economist Nouriel Roubini, who’s nicknamed “Dr Doom” for his pessimistic predictions, has said the coronavirus will stop President Donald Trump from getting re-elected.
The academic is known for correctly predicting the 2008 housing crisis and recession, and he now says the coronavirus could have a bigger impact on the global economy and Mr Trump’s presidency than people predict.
“I expect global equities to tank by 30 per cent to 40 per cent this year,” Mr Roubini, who works as a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, told German magazine Der Spiegel last week.
Wall Street saw the worst week since the 2008 recession hit with markets like the DOW, a stock market index that measures the stock performance of 30 US companies, falling 12.4 per cent.
The fall in stocks was due to growing concerns by investors about how the coronavirus would impact the global economy.
Besides focusing on the markets, Mr Roubini said he thought the virus would impact the president politically come November.
“You can’t build a wall in the sky,” he said. “I live in New York City and people there are hardly going to restaurants, cinemas or theatres, even though nobody there has been infected by the virus thus far. If it comes, we are totally f***ed.”
Mr Trump has previously garnered support by inciting fear into his followers about immigration and economy concerns. But Mr Roubini did not think fearmongering over the coronavirus would aid in the president’s re-election efforts.
“Not at all. He will lose the election, that’s for sure,” he said. “This has always been the case in history. Ford lost to Carter after the 1973 oil shock, Carter lost to Reagan due to the second oil crisis in 1979, and Bush lost to Clinton after the Kuwait invasion.”
He added: “The Democratic field is poor, but Trump is dead.”
A strong economy is one area Mr Trump has consistently rallied his supporters around, seeking to convince them his presidency results in more jobs and increased wealth.
But these talking point are lost if the markets can’t stabilise amid the coronavirus threat.
Wall Street surged on Monday over hopes the Federal Reserve and other central banks will intervene to help limit the global impact of the coronavirus, following massive losses last week.
But the markets still remain volatile as more cases of the coronavirus are confirmed across the US and globally.
Credit: The Independent
