May 7, 2024
Nobel Prize Laureate Joseph Stiglitz is one of the
most influential economists in the world, having advised multiple
Democratic Presidents of the US and the World Bank, where he worked
as Chief Economist and senior Vice President.
His latest book, called “The Road to Freedom: Economics and the
Good Society,” argues that the economic right’s concept of
“freedom” doesn’t take into account the necessary trade-offs, that
one person’s freedom often comes at the expense of another’s. And
that “free” - unregulated - markets, far from promoting growth and
enterprise, in fact lessen economic opportunities for majorities
and syphon wealth from the many to the few.
Stiglitz, now 81, is a Professor at Columbia University in New
York, where freedom of speech and the right to protest have been
making headlines in recent weeks, with hundreds of pro-Palestinian
student protesters occupying the campus and clashing with police.
The movement has now spread from the US, and encampments around the
world are being launched, where the common demand is asking
universities to divest and disclose their financial support of the
war in Gaza.
In this episode of Ways to Change the World, economist Joseph
Stiglitz tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy why more government
intervention is desirable, whether campus protests in the US are
going “over the line” and why stalling living standards “create a
fertile field” for demagogues like Donald Trump.
Produced by Shaheen Sattar and Silvia Maresca