“Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy”

[Jefferson23]

Review:


By DEVIN LEONARD
Published: January 30, 2010

NEARLY two years ago, as a presidential candidate, Barack Obama gave a stirring speech at Cooper Union in New York about the need to reform the country’s financial system. Joseph E. Stiglitz, the Nobel-winning economist, recalls it fondly in his powerful new book, “Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy”



The results speak for themselves, Mr. Stiglitz says. He worries that “the best that can be said for the economy was that by the fall of 2009 it seems to be at the end of a freefall, a decline without an end in sight. But the end of freefall is not the same as a return to normalcy.”

That raises a question: How is it that Mr. Obama the candidate understood the need for economic reform while Mr. Obama the president became a defender of the status quo in many unexpected ways?

Mr. Stiglitz, a former chief economist at the World Bank who spent time in the White House as an adviser to President Bill Clinton, thinks he knows the answer. He writes that Mr. Obama surrounded himself with an economic team whose members — Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman; Timothy F. Geithner, the Treasury secretary; and Lawrence H. Summers, the director of the National Economic Council — have been reluctant to revamp the financial system.

Mr. Stiglitz says that these are some of the same people whose policies brought us the economic collapse of 2008. That is sure to rankle their supporters, but Mr. Stiglitz, a fine writer, makes a persuasive case.


remainder: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/business/31shelf.html

[tularetom]

1. I love it when Nobel medalists confirm my opinion

A lot of people here on DU have been saying that for a year.

Obama needs to fire Summers and Geithner yesterday.

And while he's at it he needs to get rid of Rahm Emanuel.

I guess it's too late to do anything about Bernanke.

[Jefferson23]

2. True. When Geithner and Summers were named, I believe many were disappointed..to say the least.

After the disastrous results of health care insurance reform, I truly hope Obama takes the aggressive approach here and follows
Stiglitz's advice. We'll see!

[Bigmack]

3. Thanks for this post

Meant to put the Stiglitz book on the TO READ list, and then lost the title! I need more cheery reads! Ms Bigmack

[raccoon]

4. I'm reading FREEFALL now, about 100 pages into it.

Good book, but it's deucedly hard to read. I don't have a background in economics nor in finance, though I've done a lot of reading on both subjects.

Has anyone else gotten through it?

[raccoon]

5. I finally gave up yesterday, having reached page 128. I returned it to the library. nt