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."

What went wrong with economics?

Another article criticizing the economics profession:

http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=14031376

Economics
What went wrong with economics
Jul 16th 2009

My comment: I don't think it was "Economics" that went wrong, but rather the libertarians, market fundamentalists, and rational and efficient markets theorists (aka Alan Greenspan and the Chicago School).

The deregulation of financial markets was the problem, not the solution (as Krugman, Shiller, Akerlof, Stiglitz and other Nobel-prize-winning economists have pointed out).

I would highly recommend the book "Animal Spirits", by Akerlof and Shiller:
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8967.html

Akerlof and Shiller mention greed and corruption among their "animal spirits".