President Obama has just told the people of America that he sees progress in the current economic quagmire. Where that optimism comes from is hard to say other than the US Treasury Secretary having made a statement yesterday on quarantining toxic debts - in a seemingly one-sided public-private investment vehicle - and consideration being given to taxing excessive executive bonuses at 90%.
Joseph E. Stiglitz is University Professor at Columbia University. Among many books, he is the author of Globalization and Its Discontents. He received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001 for research on the economics of information. Most recently, he is the co-author, with Linda Bilmes, of The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Costs of the Iraq Conflict.
Writing in Project Syndicate [reproduced on CommonDreams] the professor questions the Admininistration's moves in bringing the current financial mess, and the fallout from it, into some sort of order:
"Let's be clear: President Barack Obama inherited an economy in freefall and could not possibly have turned things around in the short time since his election. Unfortunately, what he is doing is not enough.
The real failings in the Obama recovery program lie not in the stimulus package -- though it is too heavily weighted toward tax cuts, and much of it merely offsets cutbacks by states -- but in its efforts to revive financial markets. America's failures provide important lessons to countries around the world that are or will be facing increasing problems with their banks."
Continue reading here.
Joseph E. Stiglitz is University Professor at Columbia University. Among many books, he is the author of Globalization and Its Discontents. He received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001 for research on the economics of information. Most recently, he is the co-author, with Linda Bilmes, of The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Costs of the Iraq Conflict.
Writing in Project Syndicate [reproduced on CommonDreams] the professor questions the Admininistration's moves in bringing the current financial mess, and the fallout from it, into some sort of order:
"Let's be clear: President Barack Obama inherited an economy in freefall and could not possibly have turned things around in the short time since his election. Unfortunately, what he is doing is not enough.
The real failings in the Obama recovery program lie not in the stimulus package -- though it is too heavily weighted toward tax cuts, and much of it merely offsets cutbacks by states -- but in its efforts to revive financial markets. America's failures provide important lessons to countries around the world that are or will be facing increasing problems with their banks."
Continue reading here.
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