# Markets’ Rational Complacency

1 Opinion September 30, 2014 Project-Syndicate ![Nouriel Roubini](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/nroubini.jpg?itok=R6F5VNmo) By Nouriel Roubini > While global markets arguably have been rationally complacent, financial contagion cannot be ruled out.

An increasingly obvious paradox has emerged in global financial markets this year. Though geopolitical risks – the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the rise of the Islamic State and growing turmoil across the Middle East, China’s territorial disputes with its neighbors, and now mass protests in Hong Kong and the risk of a crackdown – have multiplied, markets have remained buoyant, if not downright bubbly.

Indeed, oil prices have been falling, not rising. Global stock markets have, overall, reached new highs. And credit markets show low spreads, while long-term bond yields have fallen in most advanced economies.

Yes, financial markets in troubled countries – for example, Russia’s currency, equity, and bond markets – have been negatively affected. But the more generalized contagion to global financial markets that geopolitical tensions typically engender has failed to materialize.

Read full article as published in [Project Syndicate](http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/nouriel-roubini-asks-why-global-financial-markets-remain-buoyant-in-the-face-of-mounting-geopolitical-risks)

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*Nouriel Roubini is a Professor of Economics and International Business and the Robert Stansky Research Faculty Fellow.*## More Opinions from Nouriel Roubini

- [Oil Shocks Are No Longer So Shocking.](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/faculty-research/opinion/oil-shocks-are-no-longer-so-shocking)
- [Four Scenarios for the Iran War.](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/faculty-research/opinion/four-scenarios-iran-war)
- [U.S. Escalation Is the Most Likely Scenario in Iran.](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/faculty-research/opinion/us-escalation-most-likely-scenario-iran)
- [Kevin Warsh Is in for a Rude Awakening.](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/faculty-research/opinion/kevin-warsh-rude-awakening)
- [The Coming Crypto Apocalypse.](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/faculty-research/coming-crypto-apocalypse)