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

CHIASMOS: The University of Chicago International and Area Studies Multimedia Outreach Source [audio]

A talk by Columbia University professor Joseph Stiglitz. The current global financial crisis carries a "made in America" label. In "Freefall", Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz explains how America exported bad economics, bad policies, and bad behavior to the rest of the world, only to cobble together a haphazard and ineffective response when the markets finally seized up. Drawing on his academic expertise, his years spent shaping policy in the Clinton administration and at the World Bank, and his more recent role as head of a UN Commission charged with reforming the global financial system, Stiglitz then outlines a way forward building on ideas that he has championed his entire career: restoring the balance between markets and government; addressing the inequalities of the global financial system; and demanding more good ideas (and less ideology) from economists. "Freefall" combines an account of the current crisis with a discussion of the broader economic issues at stake. From the World Beyond the Headlines series.