"Economist Joseph Stiglitz would win the Nobel Prize for plain talk if such an thing were ever awarded. Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University, had a simple message today for political leaders in European Union and the United States: Austerity does not work and prevents countries from creating jobs. âAusterity is an experiment that has been tried before with the same results,â Stiglitz is quoted by Bloomberg News as saying to an audience in Copenhagen. Of course, heâs right. People donât get more with less. Businesses have to spend money to make money. They canât cost cut their way to prosperity, and neither can governments. Itâs common sense, but try telling that to the Republicans in Congress or leaders in Europe in the grips of what Stiglitz refers to as âdeficit fetishism.â The U.S. may max out its $14.3 trillion debt ceiling by August 2, and Republicans are demanding trillions of dollars in spending cuts in return for their support of what is supposed to be a routine matter. Vice President Joe Biden expressed tepid optimism yesterday that deficit reduction talks he is heading were going well. Republicans have tied their support for raising the debt ceiling to cutting the deficit. Boehner, an Ohio Republican, is reportedly seeking $2 trillion in cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling high enough to last through the 2012 presidential election. Democrats,so want to raise taxes on the rich, are pushing back and are seeking a clean (amendment-free) bill. Of course, the chances of that happening are slim to none. Critics of Obamaâs economic policies downplay the significance the $787 billion stimulus bill provided the economy. They also neglect to point out that taxpayers have turned a profit on most government bailouts. Indeed, most economists say the economy would be far worse off without these policies. âA 2009 U.S. stimulus package increased the number of people employed by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million and cut unemployment by 0.7 percentage point to 1.8 percentage point, according to U.S. CBO,â the new service says. The situation in Europe is worse. As Bloomberg notes, European officials are expecting the regionâs economic growth to lag the U.S. both this year and next. Greece will probably need another bailout and Portugal and Ireland remain in miserable fiscal shape. The rest of the continent is doing alright, though. The strength in Germany and France propelled the euro-zone nations to have their strongest annual growth rate in more than three years. Speculation abounds that the European Central Bank will raise interest rates. But the biggest threat to austerity in the U.S. and Europe isnât inflation, itâs psychology. The notion of shared sacrifice is much easier to swallow when everyone is suffering. Now that some countries in are beginning to recover â in spite of high gas prices â people want to be rewarded for enduring the hardships they endured from the recession. Politicians who support fiscal austerity have a tough job ahead of them." âJonathan Berr Read more: Daily Austerity Watch: Nobel Winner Joseph Stiglitz Talks Sense - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/2011/05/13/dai...er-joseph-stiglitz-talks-sense/#ixzz1McbxIVTP
Like Krugman, Stiglitz is just another political hack. The level of debt is now such that austerity without debt forgivness cannot work, and increased deficits will only tempoarily defer economic pain and ensure that it's much worse later - just look at what the bailouts have done for Greece - and please do not tell me it's due to austerity - they never had a chance from the onset. Hugh Hendry has the right idea and shows Stiglitz, who BTW was apparently an advisor to Greece, for the clown that he is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4MAifsp-8E "We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong ... somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises ... I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started ... And an enormous debt to boot!" Franklin Roosevelt's Treasury Secretary, Henry Morgenthau, May 1939
How could anyone not agree with a Nobel Prize Wiener? How could anyone question The Chair of the Commission Professor Joseph Stiglitz of Socialist International - Progressive Politics For A Fairer World And Global Governance.
You miscorrected my intentional misspelling of winner. It's spelled wiener in this case. These news articles misshaping the world with an agenda always like to emphasize that their subject has won the Nobel. Like that means anything anymore.
his socialists party simply wants the capitalists pigs (us) to bankrupt ourselves and clear the way for the real saviours (them). he talks no sense he talks his political agenda.
Because it's better to have 3 years of pain than 25 years of misery. What many people just don't seem to comprehend is that printed money is not real wealth. Governments do not produce wealth, they merely consume or redistribute it. The sooner Governments scale back and stop sucking the life blood out of their economy through taxation, inflation, overspending, and bad policy that enriches the most parasitic sector of all, banking, the sooner entrepreneurs and workers, the entities that governments and banks feed off, can create real wealth that is the basis of a healthy economy.