5 Disastrous Decisions That Got Us into This Econmic Mess

by Joseph Stiglitz Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2008 at 1:51 PM
mbatko@lycos.com

We are at a dangerous moment. Behind the debates about future economic policy is a debate about history. Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate, is a professor of economics at Columbia University.

The truth is most of the individual mistakes boil down to just one: a belief that markets are self-adjusting and that the role of government should be minimal. Looking back at that belief during hearings this fall on Capitol Hill, Alan Greenspan said out loud, "I have found a flaw." Congressman Henry Waxman pushed him, responding, "In other words, you found that your view of the world, your ideology, was not right; it was not working." "Absolutely, precisely," Greenspan said. The embrace by America -- and much of the rest of the world -- of this flawed economic philosophy made it inevitable that we would eventually arrive at the place we are today.

to read Joseph Stiglitz' article published in Vanity Fair and Alternet in December 2008, click on

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/111709/5_disastrous_decisions_that_got_us_into_this_economic_mess/

Original: 5 Disastrous Decisions That Got Us into This Econmic Mess