Has anybody heard of Nouriel Roubini? His nick name appears to be Dr Doom? No?

On Page 17 in the business pages of The Irish Times on Saturday May 28th 2011 there’s a heading “Dr Doom says Irish economy is going to get even sicker“. We all hate Nicky Sarkozy and for good reasons we despise Jean-Claude Trichet (which translates into English as “tricker”) – now do we need to hate this guy too?

Speaking in Budapest last week he said “I expect that a ‘disastrous’ sovereign debt crisis will engulf Ireland within three years, brought on by the mounting cost of bailing out the banks”. This is from the economist who five years ago predicted, in detail, a collapse of the housing market and worldwide recession – and was roundly ridiculed for it. When he’s not giving us bad news he’s the prof of Economics in New York University.

I’m not sure we should hate him at all – in the same way we shouldn’t hate Morgan Kelly. If anything he looks like someone who knows how to enjoy himself – maybe we should follow the example of these girls here – buy him a few drinks and get up close and personal with him and listen carefully to what he has to say. Judging by this photo he seems to be leaning towards Asia.

In May 2008 he published a paper entitled “The 12 Steps to Financial Disaster” and each one of these has happened. Scary but true.

Read the latest from our friend Dr Doom HERE Listen to him HERE on BBC Radio 4 this morning June 15th 2011