Middle East Turmoil Brings Economic Risks, Roubini Writes in FT

The upheavals in Tunisia and Egypt have alarming economic implications, given that three of the last five global recessions followed shocks in the Middle East that led to sharply higher oil prices, said Nouriel Roubini, an economist at New York University.

Writing in the Financial Times, Roubini said the recession that began in the autumn of 2008 was caused not only by the Lehman Brothers insolvency but also by the fact that oil prices had doubled in the previous 12 months.