First published 2010
The global financial crisis bears American fingerprints. Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz dissects how the United States spread flawed economics, misguided policies, and reckless behavior worldwide before assembling a clumsy response when markets collapsed. Stiglitz draws from his academic research, his policy work during the Clinton years and at the World Bank, plus his leadership of a UN commission tasked with financial system reform. He charts a path forward through principles he has advocated throughout his career. Markets and government need rebalancing. Global financial inequalities require attention. Economists must prioritize sound ideas over rigid ideology. The book functions as both detective story and economic analysis, investigating the crisis while examining the larger stakes for the world economy.
Genres: political-science, politics, economics, non-fiction, 21st-century, academic
Vibes: thought-provoking
Tropes: detective-story
Setting: United States, World Bank
Period: Clinton Years
361 pages · Hardcover · W. W. Norton & Company