Meet The 10 Original Economists Nicknamed 'Doctor Doom'

Doctor Doom has become such a cliché nickname for bearish economists that it's getting meaningless. The headline "DOCTOR DOOM SAYS..." will just confuse people.

But there were times when the nickname referred to one or two legendary economists, whose proclamations could move markets.

Henry Kaufman -- predicted the '66 credit crunch

The German born American economist Henry Kaufman is the original Dr. Doom, having predicted the 1966 credit crunch while still at Salomon Brothers. In the 70s and 80s he maintained a gloomy outlook on high inflation rates, interest rates and the bond market. On NPR, he said the 2008 crisis is the "worst recession in the post-World War II period."

Gary Shilling -- predicted recessions since the '60s

Gary Shilling has been predicted recessions for fifty years, including the 1969 slowdown.
When he predicted the Dot Com crash in 2000, Daily Record said he was "dubbed by one and all Doctor Doom."' He also made prominent calls about the housing crash.

Marc Faber -- predicted the '87 crash

Predicting the crash of the world stock market in 1987, on a day that has since come to be known as Black Monday, Marc Faber didn't have to try hard to earn the moniker Dr Doom. In 1988, Asian journalist Nury Vittachi published  Doctor Doom - Riding the Millenial Storm - Marc Faber's Path to Profit in the Financial Crisis. Just as well, since he publishes the Gloom Boom & Doom report about global investment opportunities.

Ravi Batra -- predicted The Great Depression of 1990 (not quite)

Ravi Batra earned his nickname in 1987 when he published The Great Depression Of 1990. The professor of economics at Southern Methodist University got some flak for mixing economics with eastern mysticism.

Andrew Oswald -- predicted the UK housing crash of the '90s

Andrew Oswald was called the original Dr Doom (false) for predicting the UK housing price crash in the 1990s.
In 2004, the University of Warwick professor also predicted the next housing bubble crash.
"It is our responsibility as economists to speak out when the data are telling us something, even though we may sometimes be wrong or unpopular," he was quoted saying by The Guardian. 

Robert J. Shiller -- predicted the Dot Com crash

In 2000, Barron's pronounced Robert Shiller The New Dr. Doom. At the time he published Irrational Exuberance was accused of being too bearish on the stock market boom. In his 2005 edition of the book he took on the property market as well.

Morgan Kelly -- predicted the Irish real estate crash of '06

"Cassandra or Dr Doom? Hero or Messiah? " asked The Irish Times of Morgan Kelly, Professor of Economics at the University College Dublin.
Kelly predicted Ireland's real estate crash in 2006 and published The Irish Credit Bubble in 2009 just as the property bubble popped. He is widely known as The Irish Doctor Doom.

Nouriel Roubini -- predicted the sub-prime mortgage crisis of '06

Nouriel Roubini addressed economists at the International Monetary Fund and predicted the sub-prime mortgage crisis in 2006. His conclusions were met with scepticism, till 2007. In 2008, Roubini responded to the New York Times piece, Dr Doom on his website saying, "I would take issue only with the characterization of myself as being a “perma-bear” or “perpetual pessimist”. For one thing I ended up a realist rather than a pessimist about the current economic and financial crisis; things are turning out even worse than I initially predicted."
His latest dismal prediction on CNBC was that at least 400 US banks on the critical list will fail.

Willem Buiter -- predicts a sovereign debt crisis

"The public finances in the majority of advanced industrial countries are in a worse state today than at any time since the industrial revolution, except for wartime episodes and their immediate aftermaths," wrote Citigroup's chief economist Willem Buiter.
According to Zero Hedge, Buiter has predicted there may not be any AAA-rateed sovereigns in the next 5 years if countries like the US and Germany don't tighten their fiscal policy.
He was named the new Dr. Doom by NY Observer in May '10.

Peter Schiff -- predicted the financial crisis

"CNBC started calling me "Dr. Doom" in 2004," Peter Schiff said in an interview with The Globe and Mail. In 2007 he published Crash Proof: How to Profit from the Coming Economic Collapse and told anyone who listened to get out of the US stock and real estate markets.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/economists-nicknamed-dr-doom-2010-10?op=1#ixzz2QJEtWytt