A year ago Roubini was forecasting an 18-month recession with a U-shaped recovery; now, hes now expecting the downturn to last at least 24 months and possibly 36-months. He also sees rising risks of a Japanese-style L-shaped stagnation, i.e. a prolonged period with little or no economic growth.

“I was one of most bearish people [but] the economy has surprised the bears on the downside,” says Roubini of NYUs Stern School and RGE Monitor. “Whats happening in the world now is scary.”

via Even Dr. Doom Is Scared Economy Much Worse Than Roubini Predicted: Tech Ticker, Yahoo Finance.

The fiscal stimulus bill being debated in Congress not only won’t help the economy, it will make the recession much worse, says Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital.

…the difference is that the economy is in a much worse state going into this depression than it was in the 1930s… and without the discipline of gold, we have a central bank that could create massive inflation. So we could have an inflationary depression.