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Editor's Note: This story was updated Dec. 6.
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Nice article on "Chasing Stiglitz" You might want to correct the typo in the URL www.bepress.com so that people can follwo it.
The current crisis is for the most part due to the fact the economy was fueled by incurring debt largely by refinancing of homes, it will be interesting to see just how this all plays out since so many of the ARM loans were designed for ultimate foreclosure. I doubt the banks knowing they would at some point foreclose gave any thought to the possibility home values would go down so dramatically and would be faced with a loss. If you can call it a loss that is; since the taxpayers in general have more than adequately chipped in to save them to the tune of $700 billion.
With the debt now held by most American families over whelming; what fuels the recovery from this point on? the bank bail out was to make money available for loans to an already over extended population. America is unemployed, underpaid, and uncertain with no assets for collateral to borrow more as a means to fuel that all important consumerism. Too many Americans are in no position to be borrowing and they know it and if they don???t the banks will tell them should they attempt to take out a loan and they find their home is worth less than they owe now. So any help from the bail out is not going to reach main street.
Until we have economists who do not have their heads in the clouds and the weird brand of corporate capitalism they have imposed gives way to the free enterprise system that made this country what it was not so long ago; there will not be a sustainable change. The economic advisors Obama has so far chosen do not seem to be of the type who has their feet on the ground or their eye on the future of this country beyond a few years and as such represent more of the same.
Creating 3 million jobs just barely replaces the jobs lost in the last two years. Granted it will help to be sure, but still hardly a change.
It amounts to a recovery of the last few years not a recovery from 40 years of the republican war on the middle class.
It is amazing to me the average salary of today is almost exactly what I was making in 1979 and literally everything costs 300% more.
This is a good article. I'm a big Stiglitz fan (and a public finance economist), and I was also hoping that he'd get a prominent job in the new economic team. It's good to see that others have been thinking the same thing. Maybe he will eventually get invited in; I certainly hope so.
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The crisis has forced the United States to confront bad habits developed over the past few decades. If we can kick those habits, today's pain will translate into gains.
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