#042 MEGATHREATS: 'Dr. Doom' Nouriel Roubini's Scariest Prediction

Dr. Nouriel Roubini (@nouriel), Professor Emeritus of Economics at New York University's Stern School of Business, joins Julia La Roche on episode 42 to discuss his newest book, MegaThreats: Ten Dangerous Trends That Imperil Our Future, and How to Survive Them.

Roubini, known as "Dr. Doom" due to his tendency to make pessimistic predictions, warned of the housing crisis and impending recession, but it was too late. Roubini is now making another prediction that is even more alarming and should not be overlooked.

The world is facing a multitude of interconnected threats, referred to as Megathreats, that have the potential to cause widespread disaster. According to Roubini, these Megathreats are all connected and threaten not only our jobs, income, savings, and wealth but also our health, the planet's health, and even our species' survival.

These Megathreats include the worst debt crisis ever seen, excessive money printing by governments, blocked borders for workers and goods, the growing competition between China and the US, and the effects of climate change on heavily populated cities.

Roubini says we're "sleepwalking into disaster," and this book is a "wake-up call." Time is of the essence in addressing these issues and attempting to prevent their adverse outcomes.

Roubini is also the Chief Economist at Atlas Capital Team, CEO of Roubini Macro Associates, and Co-Founder of TheBoomBust.com. He is a former senior economist for international affairs in the White House's Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton Administration. He has worked for the International Monetary Fund, the US Federal Reserve, and the World Bank. His website is NourielRoubini.com, and he is the host of NourielToday.com.

0:00 Roubini's new book

2:58 Connecting the dots of 10 Megathreats

4:00 World faces the biggest test since WWII

5:50 Mother of all debt crises

11:00 A perfect storm

18:00 Can we go back to 2% inflation without a hard landing?

19:30 Debate is no longer a soft or hard landing

20:42 Not going to be a short and shallow recession

23:42 Factors that could lead to a hard landing

24:00 Central banks are going to blink

24:45 Demographic time bomb

28:50 Intergenerational conflict between young and old

31:40 AI as a megathreat

35:14 AI will usher in a massive increase in income and wealth inequality

36:00 The trouble with UBI

39:00 Threat to our species

41:00 ChatGPT

41:50 Roubini's advice to young people

46:27 Public enemy No. 1 of crypto since 2017

49:40 Crypto is 'the biggest financial fraud in human history'

51:58 Megathreat of financial instability

54:40 US dollar status as the global reserve currency

56:00 Divided world

58:00 De-dollarization, rise in gold

1:00:31 Do you want to own gold right now?

1:03:00 What to own in this scenario?

1:06:38 Global pandemics

1:11:13 Things Roubini never used to worry about

1:13:05 World looks more like the period between 1914 in 194

1:15:20 Sleepwalking into disaster

1:19:00 How do we survive the Megathreats?

1:21:20 Technology is the solution

1:23:00 Parting thoughts