Roubini warns on 'severe' coronavirus recession, says everyone needs $1K payment

By Julia La Roche

March 20, 2020 "Information Clearing House" -  Famed economist Nouriel Roubini predicted that a recession from the worldwide coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak will be “more severe” than the global financial crisis, but fiscal pump-priming is critical to mitigating the impact. 

With governments around the world resorting to extreme measures to keep citizens indoors and away from large gatherings, many on Wall Street are now expecting a global recession. Known as “Dr. Doom” for his gloomy economic predictions, Roubini added to those voices by telling Yahoo Finance on Tuesday that markets have reasons to be downbeat.

“For now, there is not much to be optimistic [about], and what we can hope is if there’s going to be the right stimulus — and it has to be something of at least 3% of GDP — this is going to be a very severe, but short recession,” Roubini told “On The Move” in an interview.

In order to counteract the widening effects of social distancing, President Donald Trump and his top advisors are currently debating a massive stimulus — including cutting every American a check.

Roubini agreed, suggesting that Congress give $1,000 to “every single U.S. resident” before it’s too late.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re young, old, employed, unemployed, student, formerly employed, partially employed, hourly worker, contractor, gig, or small business,” the New York University economist said.

“Everybody needs at $1,000 or otherwise we’ll end up in the Great Depression at this point.”