Stiglitz: Europe Can Do Better
by Vaska
Here’s Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz on how Europe can return to a more sustainable economic path. Stiglitz delivered this keynote speech at the European Dialogue 2016 conference held in Brussels on April 14 and 15. For Stiglitz’s speech, please click on the top-left three-bar icon on the YouTube video and scroll down to #3. The event was organized by the Hans Böckler Stiftung and the European Trade Union Institute.
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Where to start!? Apparently the US has/is recovering from the 2008 downturn by posting up a none too impressive 2% growth per annum. What sort of growth we might ask? Well stock markets in the US have risen threefold since the nadir of the slump in 2008. Sounds impressive enough but then this was not really growth – although it has been counted as such – it was actually asset price inflation. The same thing happened in the UK. Commercial banks, and other investors simply borrowed from the central bank – QE monies – and engaged in speculative spending in property, stock and bonds. However, this is not wealth creation it is financial speculation. Speculative debt financing as growth, neat trick. As for ordinary Americans, well they must be wondering what happened to the American dream. The labor force participation rate has declined over the “recovery” that allegedly began in… Read more »
I second Franks’s thoughts completely. I just want to add one minor point that would strengthen his argument slightly: “The labor force participation rate has declined over the “recovery” that allegedly began in June 2009 and continues today. This is highly unusual. Normally, as an economy recovers jobs rebound, and people flock into the labor force. Based on what he was told by his economic advisors, President Obama attributed the decline in the participation rate to baby boomers taking retirement.” Obama, as usual, is full of shit. The retirement argument can’t possibly be true because: a.) Social Security recently raised the (full) retirement age from 65 to 67; and … b.) hardly any private-sector workers have defined-benefit pensions anymore What people are doing, more likely, is faking back injuries to get disability insurance from Social Security, moving in with relatives, and going on foodstamps–nearly 40% of the US population is… Read more »
The job growth is likely to be in part-time, casual or temporary employment. These are jobs that people aged 55 years plus are picking up. People aged 25 – 54 years don’t want that kind of work, they want full-time work.
And if part-time, casual or temporary employment is booming, that’s because full-time work is being chopped up into lesser categories of employment so that employers can avoid the obligations they would normally owe to full-time workers like holiday and sick leave, 401 schemes and health insurance.
Thank you for taking the time to comment in such (illuminating) detail! No imposition at all.
This is all very interesting, but what does Beyonce think?
Speculative debt financing as growth, neat trick. png to ico file
Stiglitz is a charlatan. A gatekeeper for the pretend left.
So, forgive me if I’m misreading, you don’t like Stiglitz very much? But what about the substance of his arguments, themselves?