In this Amazon exclusive, we brought together authors Nouriel Roubini and Ian Bremmer and asked them to interview each other.
Nouriel Roubini is a professor of economics at New York University's Stern School of Business. He has extensive senior policy experience in the federal government, having served from 1998 to 2000 in the White House and the U.S. Treasury. He is the founder and chairman of RGE Monitor (rgemonitor.com), an economic and financial consulting firm, regularly attends and presents his views at the World Economic Forum at Davos and other international forums, and is an adviser to cental bankers around the world. He is the author of Crisis Economics and Bailouts or Bail-Ins. Read on to see Nouriel Roubini's questions for Ian Bremmer, or turn the tables to see what Bremmer asked Roubini.
Roubini: Your book [The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations?] suggests that an old trend, what you call state capitalism, has become much more important. What happened to change things? Bremmer: Over the past 18 months, the Western financial crisis and the global recession have accelerated the inevitable transition from a G7 to a G20 world. That’s not just a matter of more states at the bargaining table. It’s not just about having to herd more cats to get things done on the international stage. It’s about herding cats together with other animals that don’t really like cats. And that’s not really herding.
The G7 world was one where everyone that mattered for growth in the global economy accepted the assumption that prosperity depended on rule of law, independent courts, transparency and a free media—and in the value of free market capitalism. In that world, multinational corporations are the principle economic heavyweights. This consensus has provided the engine driving globalization for the past 40 years.
