Joseph Stiglitz

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/magazine/31fob-q4-t.html?emc=eta1

Before Paul Krugman won his Nobel Prize in Economics in 2008, the prior Economics Nobel was won by Joseph Stiglitz in 2001. Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University, is being interviewed in a refreshingly short dialogue attached by the NY Times about his new book: "Freefall: America, Free Markets and the Sinking of the World Economy."

He is referred to as a leading critic of deregulation which he believes allowed the banks to wreck the economy. He refers to Ben Bernanke and Larry Summers as people involved in the mistakes of the past: Bernanke not wanting to admit to having made bad regulatory decisions. Larry Summers was, of course at the Treasury Department when the Robert Rubin team led the charge on repealing regulations that stood in the way of the Citigroup debacle.

Stiglitz is obviously not trying to throw bricks and sees Paul Volcker as a steadying presence on the President's economic team. Volker tells things as they are: "He is the one who said that if banks are too big to fail, then they are too big to be managed, they're to complex, there is no person who can really manage anything of that complexity."

Also note the reference to Paul Krugman in the interview. Also note how Dr. Stiglitz handles his telephone messages.

It is a good article and appropriately short, as is this "post"!