stiglitz278_ Chip SomodevillaGetty Images_joe biden

Retrouver la grandeur américaine

Sep 14, 2020 Joseph E. Stiglitz

NEW YORK – « L’Amérique est grande lorsque nous-mêmes faisons preuve de grandeur », a déclaré avec intelligence Julia Jackson, mère de Jacob Blake, jeune homme noir de Kenosha dans le Wisconsin, qui a reçu dans le dos sept balles tirées par la police. Malheureusement, depuis quatre ans, le président Donald Trump pousse l’Amérique dans la direction précisément opposée.

La rencontre du 3 novembre entre Trump et les électeurs s’annonce comme un enjeu pour l’histoire entière du pays. Il y a 160 ans, les États-Unis décidaient d’œuvrer pour remédier au « péché originel » de l’esclavage des Africains. À cette occasion, le président Abraham Lincoln déclarait dans une formule célèbre : « Une maison divisée contre elle-même ne peut pas tenir ». Or, sous la présidence Trump, toutes les divisions de l’Amérique se sont accentuées.

Sans surprise, les riches se sont encore davantage enrichis sous Trump, le président américain ayant tendance à juger de la performance économique globale en fonction du marché boursier, où le top 10 % des Américains les plus fortunés détiennent 92 % des actions. À l’heure où les cours boursiers continuent d’atteindre de nouveaux sommets, il en va de même pour le chômage et la pénurie d’emplois aux États-Unis. Quelque 30 millions de résidents américains vivent aujourd’hui au sein de ménages qui ne mangent pas à leur faim, et la plupart des citoyens de la moitié inférieure de la pyramide de distribution des revenus connaissent des fins de mois difficiles. Dans un pays déjà marqué par des inégalités croissantes, les Républicains du camp Trump ont non seulement réduit les impôts pour les milliardaires et les grandes sociétés, mais également adopté des politiques qui conduiront à une imposition plus élevée pour la grande majorité des catégories intermédiaires.

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When Shall We Overcome?
Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post via Getty Images

When Shall We Overcome?

Joseph E. Stiglitz
In 1968, the year after riots erupted in cities throughout the US, the Kerner Commission, established by President Lyndon B. Johnson, famously concluded that the country was “moving toward two societies, one black, one white – separate and unequal.” Sadly, it is conclusion that still rings true.
reflects on how racism has persisted in the US in the half-century since the Kerner Report.

28
The Truth About the Trump Economy
Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images

The Truth About the Trump Economy

Joseph E. Stiglitz argues that what many believe is the US president's strongest claim to reelection is one of his weakest.

103

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Enrique Woll Battistini Sep 21, 2020

March 19, 2013

Staving off the impending effects of unemployment through increased consumption

© Enrique Woll Battistini 2013

The Trillion Dollar Platinum Coin financial instrument promoted by Hellen Brown and others in order for the Federal Reserve to fund the Federal Government directly, in my opinion, would certainly not save the economy. The bottom line flaw in such thinking is that the availing of limitless credit or cash to Government, whether Federal or State, by the Federal Reserve, would place the economy -with all it entails- in the hands of Government to an unacceptable degree, and not nearly enough in the hands of the Private Sector, effectively impeding the role of the Federal Government as the main legitimate arbiter and protector of the entirety of society, and ending the key role of the Federal Reserve vis-à-vis the money supply and inflation. The nefarious effects of this paradigmatic shift would not be limited to the United States, but would be felt throughout the globe.

Indeed, given that money is power, the Federal Reserve would quickly loose its independence to the Federal Government, be absorbed, and disappear forever, and given that the Federal Government would be synonymous with money in this scenario, it would soon prove, if it has not done so convincingly enough already, the truth and wisdom of Lord Acton’s words, when he warned that "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Moreover, the mere lack of the need to tax people or private enterprise to fund the Federal Government, and the consequent disappearance of the need for new issues of U.S. Government Bonds, together with the instant and worldwide distrust of the U.S. Dollar that would ensue, would simultaneously cause its terminal devaluation and create immense pressure by countries such as China for immediate redemption of the massive U.S. Government Bond debt that they hold, in kind, if not in gold, at historical values. In addition, of course, the currently conducted open market operations by the Federal Reserve for control of the money supply and inflation, and refunding operations by the U.S. Treasury to meet its bond redemption obligations, would immediately cease forever for lack of a market. Control of inflation would depend on the Federal Government alone, and its only tool would be the careful control of additions to the existing money supply. The immediate consequence of this horrific situation would prove to be a catastrophic dilemma, easy to envision, no matter what choice were made, as no middle ground imaginable would satisfy the parties involved.

Moreover, the accompanying notion that States should create State Banks that could pledge State assets such as bridges and roads, and maritime ports and airports, in lieu of Trillion Dollar Platinum Coins of their own, in order to obtain and back their own Federal Reserve loans, is magic thinking of the worst and most dangerous kind, as the Federal Reserve is currently a private institution and as such could end up owning massive and crucial State assets, outright, and under the Federal Trillion Dollar Platinum Coin doomsday scenario described above, as stated, it would be quickly folded into the Government, which, in time, would become the owner of the States, quite literally. Of course, again, this would be a doomsday scenario.

Nevertheless, and in any and every case, one immediate reason why placing the economy exceedingly in the hands of Government would be unacceptable is that, contrary to the teachings of Neo-Classical Economics, and Modern Monetary Theory, it does matter how money is spent, and whether it goes to produce shoes or guns always make a difference, but in the case of increases in the money supply, especially the large ones that would likely result from application of the Trillion Dollar Platinum Coin, how it is spent greatly matters, especially in the first go-around of its endless circulation throughout the economy. The question would be then, who should be doing the first spending and the primary spending? The Government or The People? And lastly, obviously, Central Banks should continue to exist, and to exercise their traditional control over the money supply and inflation, until a superior type of institution can take their place.

The foregoing would seemingly apply around the globe, but, on the other hand, if unconstrained, if nothing transcendentally efficacious is done, the impending effects of the growing unemployment in the Euro Zone –which threatens the world– and indeed in any other region at any other time, would be widespread bankruptcy and, very soon after that, general social disorder, national disarticulation, hunger, and for many millions of people in the Fourth World, it would mean, quite literally, starvation. However, staving off these looming effects carries the obvious need to increase employment, and production, in all currently affected countries, and this in turn requires increased and sustained demand, and consumption, acting in perpetual circular virtuous motion. This much is evident, but empty pockets simply cannot result in increased demand. Thus, clearly, the way to end this conundrum is to find the fastest and surest way to jump-start this life-sustaining cycle, and, not surprisingly, the spark required is simply the consumption of all currently available goods and services, period. And in my view, the only way to achieve this crucial change in attitude, on a world-wide scale, in the immediate horizon, is economic stimulus through an impulse-increase in the disposable income of people, and the assurance of continuity into the mid term horizon; that is, through the implementation of periodic economic –cash– stimuli for as long as necessary as dictated by the natural employment and inflation targets of each affected country.

This remedy could take the form of Limited-Life Personal Economic Stimulus Consumption Cards (ESC) issued to consumers across the board on a monthly basis by Governments, and financed by incurring new debt, or by Central Banks, through prescribed increases in the money supply, and implemented in every case through commercial banks in all affected countries. Simply stated, the solution to unacceptable or to widespread unemployment would be the issuance of 30-Day Government Debit Cards. Everyone in possession of this debit card would spend the –cash– purchasing power it granted them on whatever consumer goods and services they needed the most within its 30-day lifespan, given that after its expiration date any unspent amount would be irrevocably lost. In addition, these cards would not be redeemable for cash, and given that they would be personal, and issued to individuals, they could not be pooled, used as collateral, traded, or used in any way other than for personal consumption. And finally, their purchasing power would be subject to automatic renewal at a prescribed value, equal for all, for administrative simplicity, adjusted for attainment of inflation-unemployment equilibrium over time, on the first day of each month for as long as the program lasted.

The first effect of this program would be to reduce inventories and create demand for workers of all levels, rapidly reducing unemployment to its natural levels in these countries. Inflation would happen, as always, if unemployment were reduced below its natural level, and vice-versa, and, as always, prices would soon settle, as must be, at a higher level. However, resulting inflation, if any, could be compensated for the infirm, the poor, the unemployed, and the retired, through this very same program, funded, at the end of the day, by the increased production it seeks and would surely find. The second major effect of this program in all affected countries would be to increase personal incomes and savings, and to increase tax revenues, reduce fiscal deficits and national debts.

***

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/15150-what-is-modern-monetary-theory-or-mmt

https://www.academia.edu/44126254/Facebook_My_Commentary_on_the_Article_What_Is_Modern_Monetary_Theory_2013031903
- Enrique Woll Battistini Sep 21, 2020
  
  My Comment to:
  
  Project Syndicate – THE WORLD’S OPINION PAGE
  Why We Need More Economists – October 8, 2019
  Roger E.A. Farmer
  October 19, 2019
  
  The World is Pleading for a Transcendental New Deal of Justice and Welfare
  © Enrique Woll Battistini 2019
  
  Roger E.A. Farmer is right: "The solution is not to get rid of free markets, but rather to redesign institutions. And to get that right, we don’t need fewer economists; we need more." Project Syndicate's 2013 article "Gaming US Fiscal Reform" by Mohamed A. El-Erian, brings to mind that the dissonance between academia, big business, and government in the U.S. is of such magnitude that the innovative grand bargain in Congress required to permanently avoid the fiscal cliff, as the People rightly expect, will never happen without a repeat of the Grand Depression of the 30s, because it would demand far-reaching changes in the current economic, social and political model tantamount to a new Social Contract, given the long-standing inequitable distribution of production, and gross imbalances in welfare, these being unstoppable changes which are not envisioned and much less discussed in the halls of power, and which must seemingly be, by their very nature, de facto. The model is obsolete; this is evident. The formal apparatus must yield and adapt, or it shall collapse. What is not mentioned in articles dealing with poverty and its links to distribution of production, about the impending effects of unemployment in the eurozone, and the world, is the need to increase productivity and production, in all of its currently affected countries, and that this requires increased demand, and that the shortest route to this is consumption, and that the only route to this, in the immediate horizon, is economic stimulus through an impulse increase in the disposable income of the people, with the assurance of continuity in the mid term horizon: economic –cash- stimuli through 30-day consumption –debit- cards issued by governments against new debt –or by the European Central Bank- through commercial banks in all target countries. Furthermore, given the paradoxical reality that warring is a known quantity, ever present in the American folklore, and a recurring phenomenon in practice, whereas large scale Private-Public Partnerships for Development, and peace, are simply not, I believe that recent movements such as the Ninety-Nine Percent Declaration should take into account the wider global economic and social protest context. This threatening groundswell, which must be addressed, is exemplified by the "Los Indignados" of Spain, begun on May 15, 2011, that has spread not only to the USA, in the form of Occupy Wall Street, begun on September 17, 2011, but to the UK, is being amplified by other movements, in the First World, in the context of the European crisis, and is widening its reach to very many other countries in it and in the Second, Third, and Fourth Worlds, echoing the current global revolution begun earlier that year in the Arab Spring. Indeed, it appears that the world has reached a point where the paradigms of national and supranational government in the fields of finance, industry and commerce, justice, and security, at both levels, established at the end of World War II through global institutions such as the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, have on the one hand reached a certain level of philosophical irrelevance, and on the other, a level of practical incompetence, a la Peter Drucker. In this situation would also fall, under their own weight, sooner rather than later, the old British Commonwealth of Nations, the Organization of American States, the Commonwealth of Independent States created by the Russian Federation after the Soviet Union's demise, with its recent Eurasian Economic Community, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, currently without any counterweight, and even the European Union, preceded by its Euro Zone and nascent fiscal union, and the probably hundreds of dependent organizations, treaties, and multinational projects. That the "Recent stock market sell-off foreshadows a new Great Recession" in the U.S. as foreseen by professors Steven Pressman of Colorado State University and Robert H. Scott III of Monmouth University in their article of March 19, 2018 in THE CONVERSATION, may very well be. The question is, what can be done to prevent it, or to stem it, where, how, and on what scale? In my view, the world can no longer solve its most pressing problems -threatening anthropogenic climate disruption and global warming and universal income polarization with extreme inequality- on a piecemeal, national, and country by country basis, when the world's real economies -the U.S., China, the EU, and Russia- are globalized. Clearly, acceleration of socioeconomic inclusion and concerted investment for development to make it possible must be envisioned and constructed on a global scale without further delay. At the crux of world peace, and planetary rescue, would be tax reform, via Sole Consumption Tax (SCT), that would enable eradication of absolute extreme poverty and relative extreme poverty, through regular income redistribution ensuring the attainment of autonomous survival with increasing welfare potential for the poorest, that would irreversibly approach that of the richest, voluntary population stabilization, voluntary production and consumption stabilization, and carbon emissions stabilization. In this context one must consider that Multilateral organizations, and others, though imperfect, rose to give hope to millions upon millions of disenfranchised survivors of the war, and have evolved into a network of powerful and effective institutions serving the peoples of some 200 countries, in all manner of adverse contexts and circumstances, and staunchly facing clear threats like imminent wars, epidemics and new infectious diseases, cyclical global warming and anthropogenic climate disruption. All in the quest for comprehensive environmentally-friendly development to secure peace and prosperity on a global scale. No individual has the right to arbitrarily or autocratically and needlessly devolve, or deflate, or destroy, this crucial multilateral societal structure, and worse for the sake of self-aggrandizement, a condemnable purpose not only crassly counter-productive and irrational from every point of view, but a clear and present betrayal of humanity, in peace time, much in the vein and in the nature of war-time crimes against humanity. Also, clearly the basically unfettered capitalism of today is a failed socioeconomic system that is exterminating the poor and enriching the rich at an increasing pace and will lead in short order to civil unrest, and soon after, to global revolt, warfare and total social chaos. This perverse result is built into the system given the unbalanced, unfair, and self-reinforcing upward-flow nature of its income and wealth distribution system in society which cannot and will not be contained through the simplistic and shortsighted solutions offered by the progressive taxation systems implemented today. A cursory analytical look at Thomas Piketty's Thesis clearly suggests that the intrinsic nature of Capitalism ensures that the rich will get richer and the poor poorer, ad infinitum, till annihilation of the poorest, in any society in any country, unless, again, taxation through a Sole Consumption Tax (SCT) is used to regularly redistribute the wealth created in all societies, within societies, in such a way as to preempt consumption by the poorest from falling below the threshold of autonomous survival with monotonically increasing welfare potential, that would bring their share of wealth consumption irreversibly and asymptotically closer to consumption by the richest of the rich over time. In addition, authentic imagination, creativity, and thus inventiveness and innovation, are still the province of the human mind, but AI embodied in computers, particularly those performing as brains in all manner of robots, and those involved in far-reaching decision-making, as in government, are rapidly gaining momentum in the takeover of human affairs. This will likely have the perverse effect of increasing inequality between the people in the various layers of society in all countries, and between countries, with severe disruptive and destabilizing effects in both spheres. This, unless note is taken at the corresponding political decision-making echelons, of the fact that who should take credit, or be given credit, for production, is far less important than who should receive its benefits; that intellect or capital developed and contributed through personal effort or through shared enterprise, should continue to be creditworthy, and praiseworthy, and still be considered mostly responsible for the level and quality of production at this time, but should no longer be the prime criteria for its distribution, which is an entirely different matter, the truth of which shall become more evident as the machine-contribution to production rises and the human contribution in all terms declines and the return on capital increases. Capitalist assignment of work and its rewards has clearly proven to be perverse in the twenty-first century world, as Thomas Piketty has abundantly shown. But disrupting or dismantling working domestic or international financial, economic, or legal institutions, systems, or treaties, that have held the world together for seventy years, and purport to do so indefinitely, without having a clue as to what would take their place, simply because someone feels the impulse to leave his mark in history, would have been unthinkable a year ago. BREXIT's opting out of the world's largest trading accord, which remains very sound, having been extremely successful, for some sixty-two years, based on magic thinking, at best, and perhaps merely to gain political notoriety, instead of reforming or restructuring it from within, would also have been considered patently absurd, till less than four years ago, and is today beginning to be perceived that way by a growing part of the people of the UK. Perhaps, it is time to consider bold visions of how prosperity for all could be reached as proposed by the Mathematical Model and Simulation for "A Partnership for Development with the United States of America" that would articulate Private Sector and Public Sector entities pertinent to environmentally-friendly holistic socioeconomic development in the American Hemisphere, bringing together its 35 nations, in a concerted effort to reduce and eliminate the existing ominous welfare gap, led by the Private Sector, for profit. Model and Simulation developed in Excel in 1999, and subjected to its subsequent versions through Excel 2003 and its updates through 2014. Some macros may not work appropriately today. Such a system would have to be considered under a philosophy that would include the likely possibility that the capitalization imbalance between the northern hemisphere, and the southern hemisphere, developed countries and the underdeveloped, and between OECD countries and the rest, suggests that something may be failing in the capital markets’ capacity to arbitrate investments: It would seem that it does not function effectively, and that the not so uncommon perception of increasing relative backwardness of the Third World is true. If so, beyond investigating its causes, it is necessary to investigate the attributes, achievements, and plans of existing multilateral and governmental poverty eradication and economic development organizations, and of their private counterparts, and the regulatory environment, in order to determine the need and opportunity for the creation of new private-public systems to increase the north-south investments rate.
  
  God help us all.
  
  ***
  
  https://www.academia.edu/37250044/TRUTHOUT_-_Magic_thinking_in_an_era_calling_for_drastic_economic_policy_changes_-_2013010602
  
  https://www.academia.edu/37328185/STRATFOR_-_Europe_Unemployment_and_Instability_My_Commentary_-_2013030502
  
  https://www.academia.edu/37324664/STRATFOR_-_Europes_Crisis_Beyond_Finance_-_My_Commentary_-_2011111501
  
  https://www.academia.edu/36677672/PROJECT_SYNDICATE_-_Should_We_Really_Care_About_Inequality_-_My_comment_2018041801
  
  https://www.academia.edu/37676675/LIVING_IN_PERU_-_Peru_in_Copenhagen_Thoughts_on_The_Right_to_Pollute_-_Does_it_Exist_-_2010102702
  
  https://www.academia.edu/15092558/LIVING_IN_PERU_-_Peru_in_Copenhagen_2009_-_My_Comments_-_2010102702
  
  https://www.academia.edu/13062623/Informal_Proof_of_Thomas_Pikettys_Thesis_-_2014060802
  
  https://www.academia.edu/36677530/PROJECT_SYNDICATE_-_Is_multilateralism_finished_-_My_comment_2018051701
  
  https://www.academia.edu/36314694/BUZZFLASH_-_Thieves_in_the_Suites_-_Todays_Captains_of_Corporate_Capitalism_-_My_comments_-_2018032701
  
  https://www.academia.edu/35570658/PERUVIAN_TIMES_-_My_comment_to_Acting_Now_For_The_Future_-_Food_for_thought_at_a_time_when_thought_feeds_on_itself_-_2018010201
  
  https://www.academia.edu/13062837/La_Reforma_Tributaria_del_Siglo_XXI_The_XXI_Century_Tax_Reform_-_2011100411
  
  https://www.academia.edu/34448122/PROJECT_SYNDICATE_-_Saving_the_International_Economic_Order_-_My_Comment_-_Crossroads_Between_Old_and_New_-_2017090201
  
  https://www.academia.edu/23946856/FACEBOOK_-_Staving_off_the_impending_effects_of_unemployment_through_increased_consumption_2013031903
  
  https://www.academia.edu/12823841/Mathematical_Model_and_Simulation_for_A_Partnership_for_Development_with_the_United_States_of_America_-_December_1999
  
  https://www.academia.edu/12412727/WOLL_-_THE_ROLE_OF_INVESTMENT_PROMOTION_ORGANIZATIONS_IN_THIRD_WORLD_DEVELOPMENT_-_VI_-_2007103102
  
  https://www.academia.edu/40678833/PROJECT_SYNDICATE_Why_We_Need_More_Economists_My_Comment_2019101901
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Robert REYNOLDS Sep 21, 2020

Thanks Joe for another interesting article.

I worry though that even if Joe Biden wins the presidency in November that he will have the wherewithal to reverse some 50 or 60 years of economic, social and political decline in the U.S.A. The presence of the mercurial, superficial, divisive, man-child who now occupies the White House is not the cause of America’s problems, he is a symptom of them.

The American capitalist ‘model’ gives every indication of being broken beyond repair. There is now far too much division, inequity, cynicism, alienation and rampant greed running amok in the country. Of course, all of these problems will be greatly exacerbated if the incumbent and his nefarious Republican Party win in November.

You, quite rightly, remind us Joe, inter alia, of the disgusting fact that the richest 10 % of Americans own some 92 % of shares and of the munificent tax cuts that Trump lavished on his billionaire friends and the rich corporations.

Sections of the American population are waking up to the capitalist confidence trick that has been so successfully played on them for centuries. It seems that the capitalist class are now overplaying their hand and the consequences of them doing so are going to be interesting to observe. Someone such as Bernie Sanders (or even yourself) would have been better placed to deal with the contemporary problems facing America. Real change is needed and I do not believe that the likes of Joe Biden or Hilary Clinton are up to the task of meeting the challenges that will be faced by the next leader.
- Enrique Woll Battistini Sep 21, 2020
  
  Multilateral organizations, and others, though imperfect, rose to give hope to millions upon millions of disenfranchised survivors of the war, and have evolved into a network of powerful and effective institutions serving the peoples of some 200 countries, in all manner of adverse contexts and circumstances, and staunchly facing clear threats like imminent wars, epidemics and new infectious diseases, cyclical global warming and anthropogenic climate disruption. All in the quest for comprehensive environmentally-friendly development to secure peace and prosperity on a global scale. No individual has the right to arbitrarily or autocratically and needlessly devolve, or deflate, or destroy, this crucial multilateral societal structure, and worse for the sake of self-aggrandizement, a condemnable purpose not only crassly counter-productive and irrational from every point of view, but a clear and present betrayal of humanity, in peace time, much in the vein and in the nature of war-time crimes against humanity.
  
  https://www.academia.edu/43153765/PROJECT_SYNDICATE_The_Terrible_Conundrum_Faced_by_Humanity_in_the_21_st_Century_2020052401
  A new reply to this comment has been posted.
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Janos Nagy Sep 20, 2020

Just another leftists propaganda without revelant facts.
Herofiying a rapist?
The country was unprepared for covid?
Like which country was prepared? China?
Biden the partner in race dividing Obama will unify..what will he unify? Oh yes the hatred against police and whites that he will unify.
And anyone saying it was a foreseeable pandemic that person must have known ahead of time that the Chinese have a plan to help the democrats.
Young people are eager to rise to the challenge? oh yes stop rioting and start to find a job
Expecting more from Stiglitz
- Ben Piper Jan 1, 2021
  
  ‘Don’t criticise what you don’t understand’ -it’s ok -The old system has crashed the world’s economics and ecology -but fortunately there are people stepping up shame that so many with passion like yourself lack lack the courage to rise to the challenge with honesty.
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- Victor Phan Sep 22, 2020
  
  "Last year, when French President Emmanuel Macron issued his controversial warning about NATO’s “brain death,” he was channeling a fear that many European leaders privately hold: that the unipolar, Eurocentric, rules-based order is being replaced by a quadrangle of chaos comprising China, Russia, Turkey, and Trump’s America. "
  What do you mean by saying Trump's America? huh ,"sir" ?
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眼光 Canadian / China Sep 20, 2020

Another rich USA man gives his hipicratical opinion on who he wants to win a not so legal election. It really doesn't matter . The poltical person with the most money who can by the most rich people people will win Trump again
- Ben Piper Jan 1, 2021
  
  This comment was removed by a moderator. Replies to this comment may also be deleted. Please note that we moderate comments to ensure the conversation remains topically relevant. We appreciate well-informed comments and welcome your criticism and insight. Please be civil and avoid name-calling and ad hominem remarks.
  A new reply to this comment has been posted.
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JohnPS Gmodzel Sep 20, 2020

The third paragraph of this piece reads"...economic performance on the basis of the stock market, where the richest 10% of Americans own 92% of shares. While equity prices have continued to reach .... "
Following the link provided we find that 92% of families in the top 10% own stocks.. Further on in this cited article the claim is made that the top 20% of families own 92% of the stocks.
Mr. Stiglitz cannot justify his statement on the basis of this url.
- Patrick O'Connor Sep 20, 2020
  
  From NPR report references: Of the 10 percent of families with the highest income, 92 percent owned stock as of 2013, just above where it had been in 2007. But ownership slipped for people in the bottom half of the income distribution, and to a lesser degree for people who were above the median but below the top 10 percent.
  
  Just wondering if you're a troll from somewhere
  - JohnPS Gmodzel Sep 22, 2020
    
    My comment stands. I'm an engineer.
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Catherine SHALEN Sep 20, 2020

Mr. Stiglitz, You ve got to be kidding!
First trust and solidarity began disintegrating under Obama.
Secon Biden is a mythomaniac, and likely senile. Like so many other people, you are obsessed with your dislike and contempt for the person Trump. And there is plenty to dislike.
On the other hand, many of his international policies are excellent, AND he wont raise taxes on us and plow back the money into school administrators pockets, self defeating welfare ventures, and other inanities typically favored by Democrats. Fyi I am an independent.
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Per Kurowski Sep 20, 2020

When regulators allow banks financing $100 million in residential mortgages against $2.8 million in capital but if financing $100 million in loans to SMEs and entrepreneurs, they must hold $8 million in capital, any nation’s greatness will dissipate with time.
http://subprimeregulations.blogspot.com/2019/03/my-letter-to-financial-stability-board.html
A new reply to this comment has been posted.
Edwin Hoffman Sep 20, 2020

No presidential candidate offers any hope for American greatness. Quite the contrary, the presidents all stack their cabinets with bankers who care not for the well being of humanity, or the only planet known to sustain life in the universe. The hope for American greatness relies solely on its citizens ability to recognize the mass deception, corruption, and manipulation of government, media, and academia necessary to perpetuate the fraudulent cycle of wealth transfer of the fruits of their labors to the bankers, who are at the top of the fractional reserve, debt-based Ponzi scheme. Americans must recognize that the system from which we became independent of through the American Revolution during the 18th Century was reimposed upon is during the 20th Century through corrupt politicians beholden to international banks. This system is destroying our world, and central bankers should be arrested and tried for crimes against humanity. The president is a pawn of the banks and we can ill afford any illusion to the contrary. The sooner Americans realize they themselves are their only hope, the better.
A new reply to this comment has been posted.
Neil MacLean Sep 17, 2020

Greatness? There are very serious societal weaknesses that would make the election of a toxic Trump even possible. These foundational weaknesses will not even be addressed from out of a fog of delusional sense of greatness. I would be happy to see the return of a good neighbour, a good ally, and some measure of humility which is a vital ingredient in any actual greatness.
- P. Kamath Sep 17, 2020
  
  How about if I add few extra words- a reasonable strands of ethical and moral principles?
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nigel southway Sep 16, 2020

Yawn .... its Joe S again....playing his tired old out of tune song about Trump.... does he actually believe that Trump has not delivered and does he know that Biden is way past his sell by date.
I think we are talking a Trump landslide!!
- Ben Piper Jan 1, 2021
  
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- Theo Bassett Sep 20, 2020
  
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- Dane Allen Sep 17, 2020
  
  Hi Nigel can you show me how Trump has delivered? But can you use actual numbers or sources to data so we can actually measure it. Also do you have any solid basis for opining that Trump will win in a landslide from a consistent 7-8pt deficit right now?? I'm open to be persuaded. This is your opportunity to put forward a respectable case.
  - P. Kamath Sep 17, 2020
    
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    - Ian Maitland Sep 17, 2020
      
      You want actual numbers? Be careful what you ask for ...
      
      1. About Trump's economic record? In 2019 median household income reached $68,700, up 6.8% from the prior year. The poverty rate was 10.5%, a drop of 1.3 percentage points from the year before. It was the fifth consecutive annual decline in poverty and put the poverty rate at its lowest level since 1959. In 2019 we had the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years.
      
      2. Then there's the biggest diplomatic breakthrough since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Israel, the UAE and Bahrain inked a historic deal at the White House on a day Netanyahu called "a pivot of history." Tectonic plates are moving under the Middle East, and Israel won't annex more slices of the West Bank.
      
      3. Unlike under the last President, no ICBMs have been launched from North Korea over Japan.
      
      4. Of course Stiglitz tries to exploit the trade stand-off with China for his political ends, but the fact is that Biden's position on China is identical to Trump's. It also happens to be the least bad policy.
      
      5. Say what you want about Trump's bizarre pronouncements about COVID-19. the "actual numbers" don't support Biden's claim that Trump is to blame for the virus. Look up Ross Douthat's column on "How Many More Lives Would a Normal President Have Saved" (NYT Sept. 5). Douthat noted that if you look overall excess death statistics (the number of deaths above normal levels), it’s hard to distinguish the big countries run by centrists or socialists from the country run by Donald Trump.
      
      Your turn. Let's hear some actual facts from you.
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j. von Hettlingen Sep 15, 2020

Joseph E. Stiglitz hopes that the US under Joe Biden would reclaim its “greatness.” It is widely expected that Biden would seek to restore faith in government, and “reunify a divided populace.” Sen. Cory Booker, a former rival, believes that, Biden is “the best” person to restore “the soul of America,” and the only hope “to bring dignity” back to the presidential office, after nearly four years of Trump and spineless Republicans “undermining the state and looting the public purse.”
The November polls can also be seen as the country’s “Covid election” – a referendum on Trump’s disastrous handling of the Covid-19 induced pandemic. Due to his ignorance and incompetence, he rejects science and facts. It is “no wonder that the country was so unprepared” for the public health crisis. The number of deaths is likely to exceed the 200.000 by Election Day, with an unprecedented number of voters considering casting their ballot by mail rather than exposing themselves at the polls.
According to the author, “the country’s entire history seems to be on the line when Trump faces the voters again on November 3. It has been 160 years since the United States tried to deal with its ‘original sin’ of African slavery. On that occasion, President Abraham Lincoln famously warned that, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.’” And Trump is no firefighter. Worse he is an arsonist, who intentionally starts a fire in order to damage or destroy everything that stands in its way.
Under Trump, “all of America’s divisions have been widened.” Not only had he cut taxes for the super-rich and corporations, he also “implemented policies that will lead to higher tax rates for the vast majority of those in the middle.” With elites increasingly accumulating wealth and power at the expense of the masses, economic inequality fuels social unrest, but it also undermines the collective solidarity needed to respond to internal and external threats.
Even before the pandemic, the gap between the richest and the poorest US households in 2019 was the largest it had been in 50 years. As a result of lockdowns, some 30 million “residents currently live in households without enough food, and most of those in the bottom half of the income distribution are living paycheck to paycheck.” Little does Trump care that the US US ranks among the worst-performing countries in terms of controlling the disease and managing the economic fallout.
Although Americans have been “dying at three times the monthly rate as in World War II,” ethnic minorities are worse hit than white Americans. It suits Trump that African Americans and Hispanic people die of Covid-19, because he caters to extremists and fans the flames of hatred by protecting the white nationalists.
Meanwhile, “Trump has targeted two of the key ingredients of national greatness: social solidarity and public trust. Countries with these features have controlled the pandemic and its economic fallout far better. How can a country that trails the rest of the world in these respects lay any claim to national greatness?”
Meanwhile Republicans turn a blind eye to Trump’s lack of moral compass and his administration’s rampant corruption, condoing his dictatorial tendencies, while demonising Biden as “a puppet” of his party’s radical wing.
The author says, Trump and his cronies’ war on the ‘administrative state’ would leave the US wholly unprepared for future shocks. The country is now reeling from a (foreseeable) pandemic, and remains wholly at the mercy of a looming climate crisis, socioeconomic crises, and crises of democracy and racial justice, not to mention emerging divides between urban and rural, coastal and interior, young and old.”
A healing process does not “happen on its own.” It requires initiatives. But most of all it requires “Americans to embrace a project of national renewal.” There is hope that “a large population of young people is eager to rise to the challenge. America can become great again only if it harnesses their enthusiasm, stands together, and applies itself anew to its longstanding principles and aspirations.”
It is important that young people go to the polls in November. Only by denying Trump a landslide victory, can voters knock some sense into his head that he has squandered his chances of going down in history as a president to be reckoned with, and that he does not deserve another term of office.
- nigel southway Sep 16, 2020
  
  another planet?
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Lothar Baier Sep 15, 2020

i believe bidens claim of wanting to unify the country if the following things take place :
1.) biden releases a list of potential supreme court justices he intents to nominate , trump released a list so biden should follow suit
2.) biden announcing a list of people he will pick for his cabinet and this list contains a good number of moderate democrats as well as republicans !
3.) Biden announces CONCRETE steps he intents to implement to fight COVID while getting people back to work and rebuild the economy , what he has released so far is nothing that has not been implemented
4.) Biden announcing a clear plan on how to reign in the deficit and reduce government debt !
5.) Biden announcing a clear and credible plan for border security and to end illegal immigration
- P. Kamath Sep 15, 2020
  
  Just absurd requests. Aren’t you putting the cart before the HORSE? Before he becomes the POTUS he just an ordinary citizen with50-50% of winning. Why would any one listen to statements of just a candidate?
  
  Biden doesn’t have to, for he has proven his caliber, character and experience in his 44 years of service to the nation.
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Leo Arouet Sep 15, 2020

Joseph Stiglitz always spot on in his comments. What American society needs now is to heal and lift the spirits of its people. Close the inequality gaps; stop being, less and less, an oligarchy to become a democracy.
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Gordon Monsen Sep 15, 2020

The notion that the physically and mentally feeble Biden, who never had an original idea in his career, will make America great again is laughable.
- P. Kamath Sep 15, 2020
  
  GORDON MONSEN: you say, Joe Biden is “ mentally feeble” which in my opinion is a terrible statement. He was trained as a lawyer and was repeatedly elected to the US senate for 36 years,served as a legislator, held important positions and accepted as V.P for eight years with very valuable experience in US govt. isn’t this good enough?
  
  In US, any body can run for political office. How about your hero? He was a student at a military school where unruly boys at home are sent to (... he Has learnt to salute guards properly at AirForce 1 and military helicopters) , started as a slum land lord with Dad’s money, bankrupt in business more than once, mislead Trump University students, misogynist by any standard... ,corrupt, causing 190,000 COVI-19 deaths of people and finally has caused incalculable damage to US people and Govt. at home and abroad.
  
  Who is better off to lead America.
  
  Just wait for 7 weeks And we will see the verdict!
  - Victor Phan Sep 22, 2020
    
    "Last year, when French President Emmanuel Macron issued his controversial warning about NATO’s “brain death,” he was channeling a fear that many European leaders privately hold: that the unipolar, Eurocentric, rules-based order is being replaced by a quadrangle of chaos comprising China, Russia, Turkey, and Trump’s America. "
    What do you mean by saying Trump's America? huh ,"sir" ?
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  - nigel southway Sep 16, 2020
    
    nice left wing propaganda
    - P. Kamath Sep 16, 2020
      
      Nigel, just another six weeks! When US elections over, court cases are waiting to pounce on Trump and his buddies for tax evasion, fraud, misogyny etc. His friend Con. Black can join him too😐!
      - nigel southway Sep 16, 2020
        
        good luck with that
        
        P. Kamath Sep 16, 2020
        
        Yes, you will see!
        
        nigel southway Sep 17, 2020
        
        Most people are tired of political correctness... they want results!
        
        P. Kamath Sep 17, 2020
        
        At times ,yes! Don’t let it give you stomach ulcers. After your years of wandering, you must be content and happy in your new adopted land far removed from Trump-psychosis!
        
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Andrew M Sep 15, 2020

A Biden/Harris presidency will destroy what's left of this once great nation. We'll have higher taxes, high energy costs, low income housing in your neighborhoods, more business regulations, high crime rates, 2nd amendment gone, gun confiscation, no electoral college, and on and on. If you liberals are fine with that, then you must enjoy misery.
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David Donald Sep 15, 2020

Truth - perhaps the key foundational element of democracy - has suffered most in recent years. The destruction of truth has been most visible under Trump's divisive invective, but truth was already failing within the social media environment and a culture of "market-morality" in which spontaneous self-interest rather than a disciplined search for moral objectivity is assumed to be the surest path to the common good.
- Michael Public Sep 15, 2020
  
  Spot on David. But don't blame the media - no smart dog bites the hand that feeds it. It works within the system it finds itself in.
  Open question: If courts and media are both essential to a democracy why must media survive on advertising while the courts are financed by taxes? You will never have a moral media when they must be constantly entertaining the masses while towing the line with profit-seeking advertisers. Imagine judges got paid by corporations - what would happen to the morality of judges? I am not suggesting government have the media under its control. Rather that the media can independently raise a tax to pay for its investigative journalism arm.
  - barkeep Sep 17, 2020
    
    Media, looking at you WaPo, would benefit subscription wise with more citations, perspectives and analysis from researched works. Researched works are works with evidence and review by experts behind it. Let the skeptical argue with the research not with the brand.
    WaPo and NYT seem to vacillate between opinion and he said/she said journalism. They are missing the perspectives and insight of established research. Cite it. Incorporate it. Routinely. Always. Subscriptions will rise.
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David Donald Sep 15, 2020

While slavery was indeed a grave sin, the "original sin" of white Americans was genocide. North America was inhabited quite comfortably by environmentally friendly Asians, whom the Europeans wiped out, save for those stuck on parcels of unwanted land. It is probable that the righteousness of Manifest Destiny looked just as ugly to the Native Americans as Trump's MAGA looks to Prof. Stiglitz.
- nigel southway Sep 16, 2020
  
  They lost.. get over it
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vivek iyer Sep 15, 2020

Prof. Stiglitz correctly points out that Obama's 8 year Presidency was a disaster. He says 'Yet it has now been more than 50 years since the Kerner Commission’s report on the 1967 race riots, and racial disparities remain little reduced. The report’s ultimate main conclusion is still relevant: “Our Nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white – separate and unequal.” Perhaps under a Joe Biden presidency, the country could finally embark on a new path.' In other words, Obama helped move the country further down the path of 'separate and unequal'. Biden was his faithful Veep. Why should we believe he now has a 'potential' (which Stiglitz says is 'his greatest strength' presumably because the actuality is that Biden is weak and old but, POTENTIALLY, might become strong and young) which he lacked 12 years ago?

It may be that Stiglitz, who is a year younger than Biden, has noticed that he himself has grown stronger and fitter after turning 75. If so, he is to be congratulated. But, surely, his case is exceptional. Speaking generally, a man's potential decreases after the age of 65- which is why many people are forced to retire at that age.

America is indeed fortunate that it has a large population of young people. But, it seems, it is even more fortunate, potentially speaking, in that, under a 80 year old President it will, to quote Stiglitz, 'finally embark on a new path'. Obama's mistakes will at last be corrected. His former Veep, has as his 'greatest strength', the 'potential' to stop being what he has been for the last 50 years. Truly, this is an argument which can really fire up America's youth.
- P. Kamath Sep 15, 2020
  
  Bibek Iyer: Salaam to you. Pray tell us, where did the good old professor say,” Prof. Stiglitz correctly points out that Obama's 8 year Presidency was a disaster..” Peace and Salaam again to you!
  - vivek iyer Sep 15, 2020
    
    Jambo Khomath Bwana,
    To answer your question, Stiglitz said this when he said that Biden alone has the potential to reverse a secular trend dating back over half a century.
    
    It may be that Stiglitz, by reason of his advanced age, misspoke. Perhaps, he wanted to say 'save for Obama's 8 year Presidency' such and such is the secular trend. But that is not what he actually said. Why? Is it because, at 75, he is not capable of writing coherently? Or is it because everyone on the Left agrees that Obama was a disaster?
    
    This is a question which the US electorate will settle. Let the Condorcet Jury Theorem Rule!
    - P. Kamath Sep 16, 2020
      
      Now that my breakfast of ham and eggs over, let me draw your attention that author Joseph Stiglitz- recipient of Nobel prize - has (co) authored 35 books so far, the latest one published only last year. They are at the opposite end of spectrum and not comparable to everyday writings of a hungry frustrated author who can get his works published only in back alleys of Cairo or New York. When his views and analyses are respected in high circles of academia and US government, you say he misspoke?
      Again, Peace, Ale-Qum-Salaam!
      - vivek iyer Sep 16, 2020
        
        Adaab arz hai, Begum Kamath,
        Stiglitz, quite properly, was sacked by the World Bank. Vide https://socioproctology.blogspot.com/2017/02/stiglitz-vs-summers-and-suhartos-fate.html
        He advised Obama, but was rightly critical of his policies. Thus, it is understandable for him to admit that Obama's administration continued a disastrous trend in American public life. However, he does not explain why Biden, Obama's obedient side-kick for 8 years, will do anything different. He says 'potentially' Biden might abruptly metamorphosize into a completely different political animal at the advanced age of 80. This is not a reasonable proposition. Still, if I were 75, I may well believe that I will turn into a super-stud within a couple of years.
        
        Plenty of fools have received Nobel Prizes in Econ. Indeed, by Rothbard's Law- academic economists specialize in what they are worst at- it is inevitable that eminence in the profession correlates with obsolete ideas and highly mischievous policy suggestions.
        
        I did not say Stiglitz misspoke. I said that maybe the case but what is more likely is that everybody on the Left agrees that Obama was a disaster. Stiglitz, for one, did criticize Obama when he was in office. But nobody listened to him because his own 'Stiglitz Report' was utterly vacuous.
        
        P. Kamath Sep 16, 2020
        
        Um . How come , you didn’t take a shot at Nobel too! Trump claimed he has been nominated by some one. Anyway, Shalom🤗!
        
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P I Sep 14, 2020

A fine piece, if slightly partisan for one's liking. Is there a tendency among politicians to focus on challenging data pertaining to races or ethnicities that differ from his or her own? Biden (Who I support for other reasons) does it, as do many of the Democrats--though Harris, in portraying herself as harmed amid times of segregated busing during the primary debate did not. In a 2016 primary debate, only Gov Lincoln Chafee balked at emphatically portraying other races as struggling and afflicted though even he did not say, "We've got a national holiday named after a man, we've had an African American president...and no, you can't play football like Jim Brown." That is not the story that the media was trying to tell though, you can look up on Wikpedia how journalists evaluated Chafee's debate performance. There could be various reasons why politicians speak and respond the ways that they do; hopefully their discussion of racial issues does not self-perpetuate any problems.
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Elizabeth Pula Sep 14, 2020

For HEALING:

VUCA is the acronym for our new age world, which means:
Volatility
Uncertainty
Complexity
Ambiguity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volatility,_uncertainty,_complexity_and_ambiguity

Everyone, and I mean every one needs to watch this video:
http://agau.gastro.org/diweb/catalog/item/eid/Leadership-Emotional

It will require registering for a new account, as a user. It's not necessarily the easiest registration process. Stay with it. Watch that video. Everyone.

There is no cost. It is an essential first step for every one to begin to understand
SELF AWARENESS.

Without self awareness, you are only a reactive machine that can be controlled by anyone else.

Watching that video is a first step for any one to progress into your own SELF CARE....
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Michael Public Sep 14, 2020

The author's whole point of departure rests on the idea that all races are equal in ability, a laughable concept in the sports world, but somehow one that passes muster without further examination in the world of politics. For example, some rogue scientists have shown there to be major differences between races in terms of IQ - for example if the mean is set to 100 for the white USA population then East Asians have an average IQ of 104. You cannot demand equal outcomes when there unequal inputs - it creates a system that works against the natural flow of things. Of course, that is not to say you cannot instead ask for humane outcomes - the so called 'spirit of fraternity' of the French revolution - something sorely lacking in America - which means proper protection from crossing the poverty for anyone, regardless of color. Leave no man behind is the motto of the military. We need to move away from the concept of blanket equal outcomes, as it a poisonous one for those who have above average talents or industriousness - imagine asking black basketball players to use only one arm or refrain from jumping - and it will ultimately pit whites against blacks, men against women, left against right, rich against poor in true Hobbes-ian fashion. A better narrative is fair outcomes for fair inputs, high death taxes and a strong safety net.
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