Fall of Wall St. Is to Market Fundamentalism What the Fall of the Berlin Wall Was to Communism

[marmar]

from HuffPost:




Nathan Gardels
Posted September 16, 2008 | 04:52 PM (EST)
Stiglitz: The Fall of Wall Street Is to Market Fundamentalism What the Fall of the Berlin Wall Was to Communism



Joseph Stiglitz was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001. I spoke with him Tuesday about the Wall Street meltdown.

Nathan Gardels: Barack Obama has said the Wall Street meltdown is the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression. John McCain says the economy is threatened, but fundamentally strong. Which is it?

Joseph Stiglitz: Obama is much closer to the mark. Yes, America has talented people, great universities and a good hi-tech sector. But the financial markets have played a very important role, accounting for 30 percent of corporate profits in the last few years.
Those who run the financial markets have garnered those profits on the argument they were helping manage risk and efficiently allocating capital, which is why, they said, they "deserved" those high returns.

That's been shown to be not true. They've managed it all badly. Now it has come back to bite them and now the rest of the economy will pay as the wheels of commerce slow because of the credit crunch. No modern economy can function well without a vibrant financial sector.

So, Obama's diagnosis that our financial sector is in desperate shape is correct. And if it is in desperate shape, that means our economy is in desperate shape. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathan-gardels/stiglitz-the-fall-of-wall_b_126911.html

[readmoreoften]

1. Ig'nant alarmist!!!111!!!!

Oh wait. He's a Nobel Laureate in economics...

Ig'nant ELITIST alarmist!!1!@!!1!

[ColbertWatcher]

3. LOL! n/t

[Karenina]

5. Too much book lernin'

[Mnemosyne]

8. Yep. just a fringe whack-job. n/t

[fla nocount]

2. I like the wall analogy. n/t

[whosinpower]

4. And if market fundamentalism fails

As a model - then there is no point in propping it up. Out of the ashes, something new will arise.

New regulations are desperately needed. The GOP mantra of deregulation must be vomit in their throats right now as they rush to the FED's for help. While it frightens me to the core, what would happen if it all implodes -perhaps it should implode and then we, can pick up the pieces and get on with a better way of doing things - clearly this free market liberalism deregulation thing STINKS! Ah - yes.....greed does have a way of clouding the mind.

[tbyg52]

6. Well, I'd be willing to take a hit to my pitiful IRA, if it would get us some damn regulation. nt

[MisterP]

7. I dunno, neoliberalism will keep the guttering flame going

there's no Commie, socialist, leftist, liberal, or even non-Francoist analogues to the "liberal" octopus's puppets Michael Kinsley, Jason Furman, Austan Goolsbee, Blair, Broon, and other Austrian-School stalking horses
(mostly 'cos the Left doesn't have to lie with every waking breath--or be supported by the wealthy interests they "represent")