Financial crisis always present opportunities for economists and forecasters to make a name for themselves. There were several who burnished their personal brands by fairly accurately calling the financial meltdown of the late 2000s. Nouriel Roubini, Robert Schiller, Meredith Whitney and a few others can lay claim to that status.

But the current crisis is barely over--we hope--and we're already seeing people stepping up to predict the next one. At Davos, for example, Barrie Wilkinson, a London-based partner at consulting firm Oliver Wyman, was making the rounds promoting his report, "The Financial Crisis of 2015: An Avoidable History."

According to Bloomberg, "the 24-page study describes how banks, unwilling to accept the lower returns on equity, or ROEs, that result from higher capital requirements, may fuel a new bubble by chasing high returns in commodities or emerging markets. Regulators, by focusing their restraints on banks, may drive risk-taking into unregulated funds that also pose danger to the system."

This is certainly a serious message. By couching his analysis as prediction of the next crisis, Wilkinson has found a way to draw media attention. You could argue that this is shrewd marketing.

Perhaps we'll see other economists follow up with their predictions as to when the next crisis will set in--and why. Reporters would eagerly read.

For more:
- here's the article via the Washington Post

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