In an interview with Yahoo Finance American economist Nouriel Roubini said the financial crisis provoked by the coronavirus pandemic could have severe consequences for many people: “We literally are going to have riots on the street and people going to the supermarkets and taking over everything and stealing it because people are going to start starving”.

“Tons of people I know in New York anyone that is in the hotel business or in a restaurant or in a bar or in the gig economy, they tell they have no income, their income has collapsed to zero.”

“Today 40% of American households, based on the FED numbers, have less than four hundred dollars of liquid cash to deal with an emergency. 40% of households, less than 400 dollars – these people are not even going to have money to buy food once they lose their jobs”, said the American economist.

“Either you give a thousand dollars, and that’s not even sufficient, you are going to more targeting for the people who deserve it, but if you don’t start with a thousand dollars you are going to have riots on the streets and people going and taking over every store. We are going to have violence in the streets in the next weeks, that’s what going to happen”, continued Roubini.

“Lot of people are losing jobs, especially those who don’t have formal employment. There are dozens of millions of people who are informally employed, partially employed, contractors, gig workers, hourly, retired, students, children. We need a stimulus package across the board, a thousand dollars for everyone.”

“In two weeks the contagion here in the United States will be worse than in Italy. We are not prepared”, he added.

Nouriel Roubini, professor of economics at New York University’s Stern School of Business, had previously been nicknamed “Doctor Doom”, in particular for his pronouncements regarding the financial crisis of 2008, which he had predicted as early as 2006.