Joseph Stiglitz
Joseph Stiglitz
Joseph Eugene Stiglitz, ForMemRS, FBA, is an American economist and a professor at Columbia University. He is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciencesand the John Bates Clark Medal. He is a former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank and is a former member and chairman of theCouncil of Economic Advisers. He is known for his critical view of the management of globalization, laissez-faire economists, and some international institutions like the International Monetary...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEconomist
Date of Birth9 February 1943
CountryUnited States of America
I don't think if we had been able to make that choice rationally, we would have said that's what we want to do. We would have said: "Can't we save the banks and solve our health care problems?" The answer is yes. You could have.
Most people think the Iraq war has increased the probability of an attack. However, it's difficult to put this aspect into financial terms.
I think that for the developing world there are many versions of capitalism, and countries have to choose one that's appropriate.
I think what they've been doing is largely almost in firefighting mode without a good conceptual framework - either at the micro or the macro level. Micro, you would ask: "What kind of financial or banking system do we want?" Macro, you would say: "What are the underlying problems in the structure of our economy?"
If the President asked you to help, I don't think anybody could refuse, unless one felt that one couldn't be effective.
I think in part the reason is that seeing an economy that is, in many ways, quite different from the one grows up in, helps crystallize issues: in one's own environment, one takes too much for granted, without asking why things are the way they are.
My research in this period centered around growth, technical change, and income distribution, both how growth affected the distribution of income and how the distribution of income affected growth.
The US economy has lots of vulnerabilities in debts and deficits.
You can increase the price from 25 to 40 dollars, and people can absorb it. If the price rises above 60 dollars, they become unhappy. They start to adjust, they move to smaller cars, drive a little bit less.
Elderly people remember when they could go to the movie for a nickel or a quarter,
I told the commission that offering the two versions of Windows without a price difference was not a level playing field.
Anybody looking at these models would say they can't provide a good description of the modern world.
An example might be, when the owner of the firm knows more than the shareholders.
Asia has become the source of finance, the source of savings. It now has the human capital to manage that well. Why doesn't it take the advantage of that opportunity to try and create financial markets that work better for the people of Asia.