Nouriel Roubini

New York University Professor:

The euro area is better off than in the middle of last year, though political risks remain. Things are "less worse than they were last summer in the euro zone. The politics of Europe could worsen" with elections this year in countries including Italy and Germany, he said. "The fundamental problems of lack of growth, continued recession, of debt sustainability, of lack of competitiveness, remain. In the euro zone, the credit crunch in the banks of the periphery remains. The transmission to the real economy is still broken."