Roubini Needs a “Perfect Storm” To Stop the Decline in His Popularity

NYU economist Nouriel Roubini is now predicting a perfect storm in 2013 in the global economy (likelihood of 33%). We won’t focus on the accuracy of Roubini’s predictions. We will focus on a disturbing trend in Roubini’s popularity. Roubini’s popularity was at its peak in October 2008, with an average popularity index of 10.4. Since then his popularity has been declining. In March 2009, his popularity index was 4.9. In October 2009, it was 2.2. He saw a temporary jump in his popularity during the Europe debt crisis in May 2010, achiving a popularity index of 3.5. However six months later, his popularity index declined to 1.6.

In May 2011, Roubini’s popularity reached one of its lowest levels since the 2008 crash. Roubini’s popularity index was 0.94 last month. He was 11 times more popular during the crisis. We were expecting a slight increase in his popularity in early June when the stock market saw mid single digit declines. Unfortunately Roubini’s popularity index wend down more, now standing at 0.9. Insider Monkey developed the Roubini Sentiment Indicator to predict stock market’s direction by looking at the changes in Roubini’s popularity. The recent declines in Roubini’s popularity is making our job harder. We think Roubini needs a perfect storm sooner than 2013 to stop the slide in his popularity.