Nouriel Roubini predicted the 2008 financial crisis – now he says an explosion of hi-tech will be unlike anything mankind has ever seen, trivialising near-term headwinds
2-MIN READ2-MIN ListenSylvia MaPublished: 6:06pm, 13 Apr 2026The economist famously dubbed “Doctor Doom” for predicting the 2008 financial crisis has seemingly morphed into a bullish “Doctor Boom” with his latest economic outlook.
Framing AI as a long-term driver rather than a bubble, the economist said that the US and China were the world’s two leading innovators, and that both stood to benefit.
“That fundamental story – regardless of geopolitics, regardless of climate change, regardless of populism – is the driver for the next 10 to 20 years, and is a positive for the world at large,” Roubini said at the Greenwich Economic Forum in Hong Kong on Monday.
Roubini pointed to around 15 technologies – including AI, semiconductors, humanoid robots and space exploration – that he said collectively represent a “Cambrian explosion of new technologies of the future that we’ve not seen in human history”.
With the boost from technology, the American economy’s potential annual growth, which now stands at 2 to 3 per cent, is expected to reach 4 per cent by the end of the decade, said the economist, who is also the chairman and CEO of Roubini Macro Associates.
