Joseph E. Stiglitz
Joseph E. Stiglitz, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics, served as Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers from 1995 to 1997. He is the author of the recently published bestseller, Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy.
-
2010-02-05
| Barack Obama wanted to bridge the divides among Americans that George W. Bush had opened. But now those divides are wider than ever, and Obama's attempts to please everyone, so evident in the last few weeks, are likely to mollify no one.... read |
-
2010-01-06
 |
Underlying the failure of the climate change summit in Copenhagen last month is the failure of the idea that carbon-emission rights can be allocated fairly. Perhaps it is time to try another approach: a commitment by each country to raise the price of emissions (whether through a carbon tax or emissions caps) to an agreed level, say, $80 per ton.... read |
-
2009-12-09
| The best that can be said for 2009 is that it could have been worse, that we pulled back from the precipice on which we seemed to be perched in late 2008, and that 2010 will almost surely be better for most countries around the world. But, unless we learn the lessons of this crisis, we may well be faced with another opportunity to learn them.... read |
-
2009-12-07
 |
If we have learned one lesson from the financial crisis, it is that the bigger the bank, and the more risk-taking that big banks are allowed to engage in, the greater the threat to our economies and our societies. That is why we need a multi-prong approach, including special taxes, increased capital requirements, tighter supervision, and limits on size and risk-taking activities.... read |
-
2009-10-26
| If science is defined by its ability to forecast the future, the failure of much of the economics profession to see the crisis coming should be a cause of great concern. But there is, in fact, a much greater diversity of ideas within economics than is often realized, and there is now more reason than ever to hope that those ideas will receive the broad attention that they deserve.... read |
-
2009-10-06
 |
The recent death of Norman Borlaug, who received the Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution to the “green revolution,” provides an opportune moment to reflect on basic values and on our economic system. Whereas Borlaug saved hundreds of millions from hunger and changed the global economic landscape, those who have made society worse off reap the highest rewards.... read |
-
2009-09-07
| Striving to revive the global economy while simultaneously responding to the global climate crisis has raised a knotty question: are statistics giving us the right “signals” about what to do? The big question concerns whether GDP provides a good measure of living standards. ... read |
-
2009-08-06
 |
As the green shoots of economic recovery that many people spied this spring have turned brown, many are asking whether the policy of jump-starting the economy through a massive fiscal stimulus has failed. That question, however, would make sense only if Keynesian economics had really been tried. ... read |
-
2009-07-01
| While discussions about economic “green shoots” continue unabated in the US, in many countries, and especially in the developing world, matters are getting worse. And, with neither the US nor the G-20 has taking a leadership role in addressing sensitive issues – including reform of the global reserve system – that affect poor countries, the UN has stepped into the gap.... read |
|
America’s Socialism for the Rich
|
Joseph E. Stiglitz 
|
|
America has expanded its corporate safety net in unprecedented ways, from commercial banks to investment banks, then to insurance, and now to automobiles, with no end in sight. The rich and powerful turn to the government to help them whenever they can, while needy individuals get little social protection.... read
|
-
2003-11-06
| Wittingly or unwittingly, individuals do things that injure other individuals. For society to function, it must provide individuals with incentives not to do so, through rewards and punishments, regulations and fines. By polluting the air, one harms anyone who breathes. The legal system has an important role here. If I injure you, you should be able to sue me.... read |
-
2003-10-06
| Today, many emerging markets, from Indonesia to Mexico, are told that there is a certain code of conduct to which they must conform if they are to be successful. The message is clear: here is what advanced industrial countries do, and have done. If you wish to join the club, you must do the same. The reforms will be painful, vested interests will resist, but with enough political will, you will reap the benefits. ... read |
-
2003-09-24
| For three years, America's president has pursued a unilateralist agenda, ignoring all evidence that contradicts his positions, and putting aside basic and longstanding American principles. ... read |
-
2003-09-24
| It is six years since the IMF's fateful meeting in Hong Kong, just before the global financial crisis. I was there. What a peculiar meeting it was. To those paying attention, it was clear that a crisis loomed. Capital market liberalization was the culprit, exposing countries to the vagaries of international capital flows--to both irrational pessimism and optimism, not to mention the manipulation of speculators. ... read |
-
2003-08-06
| The National Bureau of Economic Research, the non-profit organization that has long been responsible for marking the beginning and end of America's recessions, has finally declared that the recession that it said began in March 2001 is over. In fact, the NBER says that it ended almost two years ago, in November 2001. ... read |
-
2005-08-05
| Last October, the General Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) decided to consider what a development-oriented intellectual property regime might look like. The move was little noticed, but, in some ways, it was as important as the World Trade Organization’s decision that the current round of trade negotiations be devoted to development. Both decisions acknowledge that the current rules of the international economic game reflect the interests of the advanced industrial countries – especially of their big corporations – more than the interests of the developing world.... read |
-
2006-02-03
| The most important things in life like life itself are priceless. But that doesn’t mean that issues involving the preservation of life (or a way of life), like defense, should not be subjected to cool, hard economic analysis.... read |
-
2008-07-07
| History has not been kind to neo-liberalism, that grab-bag of ideas based on the fundamentalist notion that markets are self-correcting, allocate resources efficiently, and serve the public interest well. Learning the lesson that neo-liberalism was always a political doctrine serving certain special interests may be the silver lining in the cloud now hanging over the global economy.... read |
-
2008-05-06
| Inflation targeting – the view that whenever price growth exceeds the target level, interest rates should be raised – is being put to the test by soaring global energy and food prices. It will inevitably fail, at great cost to those countries that maintain it, because imported inflation can be reduced only at the price of a sharp economic slowdown and high unemployment.... read |
