In defense of Bugs, Roubini is similar to Shiller, both are professors and free to be bears while Economists working in the private sector are hamstrung by the things Bugs mentioned. In fact Shiller was more free when he wrote Irrational Exuberance, now that he has a publicly traded housing index, he has had to edit himself. Roubini has nothing to hold him back right now, that’s why he is one of the few economists that can speak his mind. Bugs’ post mentioned how greenspan was attacked for quoting Shiller seven years ago, today, Bernanke would be attacked if he quoted Roubini, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t agree with him. Economists working outside of academia have to get paid somehow, so if they don’t write books, they need to be wary of who is paying the bills when giving an opinion in public. The UCLA professors are usually bullish but their department is heavily endowed by the building industry ( I could be wrong but I think Lusk, a builder, is who the school of economics and housing is named after). On a side note, how cool would it be to be in either Roubini or Shiller’s economics class, in my next life I am going to college in the 30’s, even if I had them as professors I’m sure I would have acted just as I did in college, just looking to get the answers for the tests, studying the high points but failing to comprehend what they were actually teaching, thinking only of the next fraternity party and staring at the hot chick in class, damn I wasted my youth.
