Is the U.S. Finally Spending What We Should?

“There’s obviously going to be some rethinking of globalization,” said Joseph Stiglitz, economics professor at Columbia University and Nobel Laureate, later that day. In conversation with Clarim’s chief content officer James Ledbetter, Stiglitz explained how today’s balkanization actually began, to a large extent, after the Great Recession of 2008. Some of it has to do with the natural evolution of moving from a manufacturing to a service sector economy.

“I think both the pandemic and climate change has made it clear we have to cooperate–you know, we share a planet,” Stiglitz said. “The greenhouse gas molecules don’t carry passports, don’t obey visas. It’s the same thing with the virus. These are things we have to deal with collectively—the same for dealing with the oceans and so forth.”

Not unlike Moyo, he cautioned against dismissing China. In reference to President Joe Biden’s work with it on climate change, he explained, “I sometimes give an analogy: If you were on the Titanic and it was going down, and you’re on a lifeboat, there may be some people in that lifeboat who you really don’t like. But you still are going to row together for safety. So, we are at risk. It’s really important for us to work together on those areas.”