Continually Mistaken, Chronically Admired
The work of Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz is a study in elite myopia.
Gene Epstein is the author of Econospinning: How to Read Between the Lines When the Media Manipulate the Numbers and director of The Soho Forum, a debate series. He wrote the Economic Beat column in Barron's for 26 years.
In 2006, Nobel Prize–winning economist Joseph Stiglitz praised the economic policies of Hugo Chávez. The Venezuelan president ran one of the "leftist governments" in Latin America that were unfairly "castigated for being populist," Stiglitz wrote in Making Globalization Work, published in September of that year. In fact, the Chávez government aimed "to bring education and health benefits to the poor, and to strive for economic policies that not only bring higher growth but also ensure that the fruits of the growth are more widely shared." In October 2007, Stiglitz repeated his praise of Chávez at an emerging-markets forum in Caracas, sponsored by the Bank of Venezuela. The nation's economic growth rate was "very impressive," he noted, adding that "President Hugo Chávez appears to have had success in bringing health and education to the people in the poor neighborhoods of Caracas." After the conference, the Nobel laureate and the Venezuelan president had an amicable meeting.
Stiglitz is a figure to be reckoned with, not just for his past impact on policy but for the influence that he might wield in future Democratic administrations.
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