Roubini, Shiller see more pain for U.S. economy

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A rebound in key U.S. economic indicators masks an underlying malaise that will likely hamstring growth for many years and keep housing and banks in a rut, several top economists said on Monday.

Nouriel Roubini, president of RGE Monitor, said a recovery in risk assets like stocks and emerging markets would not last, since it had been based on unrealistic expectations for a global economic rebound.

"I see subpar, anemic, below-trend growth for the next couple of years," Roubini said on a panel sponsored by Time Warner.

Housing expert and Yale Professor Robert Shiller was equally pessimistic, saying, with regards to the four-year housing downturn: "This thing is not over yet."

Banking analyst Meredith Whitney said she was even more bearish than her fellow panelists, saying that better bank earnings would eventually be challenged by the toxic assets on their balance sheets.

(Reporting by Pedro Nicolaci da Costa; Editing by James Dalgleish)