If you're looking for signs that the U.S. economy is on the mend, you may want to steer clear of Nouriel Roubini's Twitter page.
The famed economist set off waves yesterday when he tweeted: "Q3 GDP growth very likely to be below 1 percent; and likely to be closer to 0% than to a pathetically lousy 1 percent. So double dip risk is now > 40 percent."
Roubini, who is the chairman of Roubini Global Economics and a professor at NYU's Stern School of Business, called into CNBC this morning to explain his statement.
The chances of a double-dip recession in the U.S. are now above 40 percent and second-quarter GDP growth will be revised down to an annual rate of 1.2 percent from the Commerce Department's July reading of 2.4 percent, Roubini said.
Based on the current data, third quarter growth will be well below one percent with growth closer to zero percent in the second half of 2010, he noted. Any recent improvements in the economy have come as a result of inventory adjustments rather than growth in final sales, Roubini added.
And there's hardly anything the Fed can do about it because they're "running out of policy bullets," Roubini argued. Fiscal stimulus programs that were "tailwinds in the first half of the year...are going to be essentially headwinds."
