Nobel Prize Winning Economist Says Europe is "Commiting Suicide"
By Steve Kinsman, 28th Apr 2012 | Follow this author
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Posted in WikinutNewsWorld
Joseph Stiglitz warns that Europe is on a suicidal economic path
Austerity is insanity
Most of the Republicans on Capitol Hill, along with a good number of Democrats, are calling for drastic cuts in the U. S. budget: slashing benefits, cutting infrastructure, and gutting social programs. According to Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University, that's exactly the opposite of what we should be doing. Stiglitz is especially concerned with what's happening in Europe. Speaking in Vienna, Austria on Thursday, April 26th, Stiglitz warned that the draconian austerity measures imposed upon Spain, Greece and Italy are a suicidal path for Europe, and that such policies have never worked in any large country. "I think Europe is headed to a suicide...There has never been any successful austerity program in any large country," said the former World Bank economist. Noting that Spain has a youth unemployment rate of fifty percent, with "no hope of things getting better anytime soon," Stiglitz said "What you are doing is destroying the human capital, you are creating alienated young people."
Insisting on cutting debts and deficits as a way to restore confidence in euro zone economies is likely to have the opposite of its intended effect, according to Stiglitz. "What they have agreed to do last December is a recipe to make sure that the euro zone dies as we know it. I hope the debate will be what are the things we can do to promote growth rather than how do we strangle each other."
Link:
Greeks Protest After Pensioner Suicide
Inside Job: How the Financial Collapse was engineered
Preview image from alternet.org
Comments
28th Apr 2012 (#)
Thanks Steve. interesting information.. sR
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28th Apr 2012 (#)
Thanks for commenting ShallimarRose. I appreciate it.
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29th Apr 2012 (#)
A case of too many cooks spoiling the broth, Steve? It makes sense that one economist came forward to debunk the recipe more than one economist prescribed.
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29th Apr 2012 (#)
I have been reading another Nobel Laureate, Professor Paul Krugman, also writing on similar lines. Induce growth and thereby increase tax revenue for governments is his clarion call. In 1998, we had Asia in similar dire straits. IMF and WB were prescribing similar austerity measures down the throats of South East Asian Countires like Indonesia, Thailand. But a medical doctor, Mahathir Mohamed was the Prime Minister in Malaysia. He thought about it and knew it just didn't make sense - throttling a person gasping for breath! Once you throttle the life out of the young, then that could well end capitalism and free markets! Thanks Steve for this significant news snippet - siva
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29th Apr 2012 (#)
Yes, Siva and Buzz, and what you write leads me to believe this economic collapse is being engineered by the central bankers for their own nefarious purposes.
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