U.S. recession to be long, severe: economist

NEW YORK, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- A recession for the United States will be "long" and "severe," and could bring financial distress "across the board," Bloomberg on Monday cited Nouriel Roubini, an economist known for his bearish tendencies.

"We are in a sharp slowdown. We've had two negative quarters of growth in the first half (of 2022)," said Roubini, an Iranian American economist who accurately predicted the housing bubble burst in 2008.

"The Fed funds rate should be going well above 4 percent to push inflation towards 2 percent," he said. "If that doesn't happen, inflation expectations are going to get unhinged, or you'll get a hard landing."

The Federal Reserve most recently hiked interest rates another 75 basis points in late July to thwart an inflation rate of 8.5 percent, which followed a similar raise in June, marking the largest back-to-back increases seen in decades.

Roubini said he felt although inflation may have peaked, he's unsure of how fast it may fall.

"I don't think the monetary policy is tight enough to push inflation to 2 percent fast enough," he said.