Macroeconomic policy can never be devoid of politics: it involves fundamental trade-offs and affects different groups differently. Joseph Stiglitz More Quotes by Joseph Stiglitz More Quotes From Joseph Stiglitz I grew up in a family in which political issues were often discussed, and debated intensely. Joseph Stiglitz issues family political The issue is: $1 trillion or $2 trillion is a lot of money. If our objective is to have stability in the Middle East, secure oil, or extend democracy, you can do a lot of democracy buying for this sum. To put it in context: The whole world spends $50 billion a year on foreign aid. Joseph Stiglitz issues oil years Amherst is a liberal arts college, committed to providing students with a broad education. Joseph Stiglitz college education art Put yourself in the shoes of one of these oligarchs who has been given a gift of $10 billion. Russia is in a deep depression. Nobody's investing. There is a widespread political consensus that the way you got your wealth is illegitimate. Joseph Stiglitz consensus wealth political Most people think the Iraq war has increased the probability of an attack. However, it's difficult to put this aspect into financial terms. Joseph Stiglitz iraq war thinking I went to public schools, and while Gary was, like most American cities, racially segregated, it was at least socially integrated - a cross section of children from families of all walks of life. Joseph Stiglitz cities children school There will come a moment when the most urgent threats posed by the credit crisis have eased and the larger task before us will be to chart a direction for the economic steps ahead. This will be a dangerous moment. Behind the debates over future policy is a debate over history-a debate over the causes of our current situation. The battle for the past will determine the battle for the present. So it's crucial to get the history straight. Joseph Stiglitz causes battle past Much of my work in this period was concerned with exploring the logic of economic models, but also with attempting to reconcile the models with everyday observation. Joseph Stiglitz economic-models logic periods 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?" Joseph Stiglitz banking levels thinking Poverty is what we call the extremes at the bottom. Joseph Stiglitz extremes bottom poverty The life prospects of an American are more dependent on the income and education of his parents than in any of the other advanced industrial countries. Joseph Stiglitz income parent country I'm writing from New Zealand - a country that decided from the beginning that the War was wrong, and chose not to participate in Iraq War. Joseph Stiglitz writing war country When I said "the pocket of the banks," it is not necessarily a mercenary relationship. It is a mindset. Joseph Stiglitz pockets mindset said They [political leaders ] thought the only problem was the banking system, and if they fixed the banking system, all would be fine. But the banking system and the mortgage problem were symptomatic of some deeper problems, and evidently they still haven't recognized those deeper problems. Joseph Stiglitz political leader would-be For that to happen, growth has to be very strong. To get back to normalcy, we will have to have extended growth of more than 3 percent. That's not in the cards. Joseph Stiglitz growth strong cards The country that's been most successful at that is Norway. The more typical countries are those in the Middle East where a small group seizes those resources, uses it to buy arms to make sure that they can oppress the remainder, and you get these great inequalities. So Canada is among the better performing of the natural resource economies, but it's still not up to the best performing. Joseph Stiglitz successful natural country 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. Joseph Stiglitz choices answers thinking The extra curricular activity in which I was most engaged - debating - helped shape my interests in public policy. Joseph Stiglitz engagement interest shapes I think that for the developing world there are many versions of capitalism, and countries have to choose one that's appropriate. Joseph Stiglitz country world thinking The problem with NAFTA was with what we wanted. And there, the agenda had been set by our corporations. So what is true is that workers in the United States and workers in the developing countries were often disadvantaged. They were worse off. The big winners were our corporations. Joseph Stiglitz winner problem country
