Nouriel Roubini: U.S. Has Two Economies

The U.S. has two economies, says Nouriel Roubini, professor of economics at New York University's Stern School of Business and chairman of RGE Monitor. "There is a smaller one that is slowly recovering and a larger one that is still in a deep and persistent downturn," Roubini writes. Roubini notes that while America's official unemployment rate is 10.2 per cent, the figure jumps to a whopping 17.5 per cent when discouraged workers and partially employed workers are included. And, while data from firms suggest that job losses in the past three months were about 600,000, household surveys, which include self-employed workers and small entrepreneurs, suggest a number above two million. "Many of the lost jobs - in construction, finance, and outsourced manufacturing and services - are gone forever, and recent studies suggest that a quarter of U.S. jobs can be fully outsourced over time to other countries," Roubini says. - MoneyNews