Across the Great Divide: A Conversation with Joseph Stiglitz
A Conversation with Charles Reinhardt May 19, 2015
In May 2011, Vanity Fair published an article by Nobel Prize–winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, called “Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%.” It’s a magisterial critique of the economic imbalances plaguing American society in the wake of the 2008 crash. The piece was widely praised, as much for its lucid analysis of our economy’s prime beneficiaries as for drawing explicit links between our lopsided wealth distribution and those of countries in the throes of the Arab Spring uprising. Four months later, Occupy Wall Street was born, its rallying cry “We are the 99%” an explicit reference to ideas laid out in the article. As a committed participant in a number of Occupy Wall Street’s working groups throughout 2011 and 2012, I can attest to the impact that Stiglitz’s article had for many of the movement’s supporters and allies. That piece was only one, however, in a long career of public advocacy that Stiglitz has produced in efforts to promote his vision of a fairer (and thus more stable) economy.
As former chief economist of the World Bank and economic advisor to President Clinton, Stiglitz’s experiences at the highest levels of policymaking support his ongoing critique. A longtime critic of Reagan-and-Thatcher era “supply-side” theories, Stiglitz shows us how the trajectory of America’s income distribution compares with other advanced and developing economies, pointing to where we may end up if we don’t reverse trends that began thirty years ago.
A new anthology called The Great Divide: Unequal Societies and What We Can Do About Them gathers fifty-two of his articles from the last ten years. I spoke with Stiglitz by phone about the new book, his latest opinions on the issues he raises in its pages, and how those insights pertain to ongoing issues such as police brutality, crises in the Eurozone, and what it will takes to achieve a balanced society. – Charles Reinhardt
The Barnes & Noble Review: In the introduction to this book, you mention that China has moved 500 million people out of poverty during the same time period in which stagnation has seized America’s middle class. You mention that if America doesn’t enact policies that sustain its middle class, no one will want to follow its example. Are China’s situation and America’s situation the results of different policies, or are they in fact linked phenomena?
remainder in full: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/review/across-the-great-divide-a-conversation-with-joseph-stiglitz
