RSS

Joseph Stiglitz

Joseph E. Stiglitz, former chief economist at the World Bank and chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Clinton, was recently awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Science. He teaches economics at Columbia University.

Recent Articles

That Was Then

Joseph StiglitzJan 16, 2004

We live in an upside-down world where Republicans defend deficits and Democrats attack them. These are seemingly opposite views. But both have led, mistakenly, to cuts in social investment as well as to needlessly slow economic growth and high unemployment.

For years Republicans tried to slay Keynesian economics, the idea that in an economic downturn, one should run deficits. During the Clinton years, they even pushed for a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution, which would have enshrined the principles of fiscal prudence (and precluded the Bush deficits). In those years, the Democrats were accused of being fiscally irresponsible because they sensibly believed that in times of recessions, a deficit was good policy.

Globalism's Discontents

Joseph StiglitzJan 04, 2002

Few subjects have polarized people throughout the world as
much as globalization. Some see it as the way of the future, bringing
unprecedented prosperity to everyone, everywhere. Others, symbolized by the
Seattle protestors of December 1999, fault globalization as the source of untold
problems, from the destruction of native cultures to increasing poverty and
immiseration. In this article, I want to sort out the different meanings of
globalization. In many countries, globalization has brought huge benefits to a
few with few benefits to the many. But in the case of a few countries, it has
brought enormous benefit to the many. Why have there been these huge differences