An easy way to take the pulse of 2009 is to look at what people have been reading over the past year. Alan has already talked about books, so I'll take a look at newspapers.
Yesterday, the FT posted its most read opinion pieces of 2009. Which author is on top?
Nouriel Roubini. Twice.
The two most read FT opinion articles of 2009 were Roubini's "The mother of all carry trades faces an inevitable bust" (which I discussed here), and "The risk of a double-dip recession is rising". Other popular pieces included John Taylor's "Exploding debt threatens America" (#4) and Niall Ferguson's "A history lesson for economists in thrall to Keynes" (#8).
It's safe to say that 2009 has been a year in which doom was in vogue.
The naguthties (or is it noughties, or oughties?) began on a dot-com crescendo. They ended with an insatiable appetite for bad news.
So what's in store for the next decade? If the financial media is any guide, 2010 is not beginning on an upbeat note. The lead editorial in today's FT is by Paul Kennedy, a man who was been preaching doom since Roubini was in diapers.
Let's hope he doesn't make it into next year's top ten.
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