Saturday, August 8, 2009

Joseph Stiglitz on the risk of excessive intervention

Very interesting reflections, especially given that they come from Joseph Stiglitz, which some interventionists (for example, the Chavistas in Latin America) look up to.

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/07/third-world-debt200907

"ECONOMICS
Wall Street’s Toxic Message
When the current crisis is over, the reputation of American-style capitalism will have taken a beating—not least because of the gap between what Washington practices and what it preaches. Disillusioned developing nations may well turn their backs on the free market, warns Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz, posing new threats to global stability and U.S. security."

"Old-style Communism won’t be back, but a variety of forms of excessive market intervention will return. And these will fail. The poor suffered under market fundamentalism. But the poor will suffer again under these new regimes, which will not deliver growth. Without growth there cannot be sustainable poverty reduction. There has been no successful economy that has not relied heavily on markets."

1 comment:

  1. Any Nobel Prize winning economist, like Joe Stiglitz, who is capable of defining a crisis resulting from excessive and obese bank exposures to what was officially perceived as absolutely not risky, as a demonstration of excessive risk-taking by the banks, should be asked to return his Nobel Prize.

    ReplyDelete