Joseph Stiglitz quotes

Economists often like startling theorems, results which seem to run counter to conventional wisdom. (Joseph Stiglitz)
If stability and efficiency required that there existed markets that extended infinitely far into the future - and these markets clearly did not exist - what assurance do we have of the stability and efficiency of the capitalist system? View quote
Joseph Stiglitz
In debate, one randomly was assigned to one side or the other. This had at least one virtue - it made one see that there was more than one side to these complex issues. View quote
Joseph Stiglitz
An early insight in my work on the economics of information concerned the problem of appropriability - the difficulty that those who pay for information have in getting returns. View quote
Joseph Stiglitz
The reason that the invisible hand often seems invisible is that it is often not there. View quote
Joseph Stiglitz
The fall of Wall Street is for market fundamentalism what the fall of the Berlin Wall was for communism. View quote
Joseph Stiglitz
The notion that every well educated person would have a mastery of at least the basic elements of the humanities, sciences, and social sciences is a far cry from the specialized education that most students today receive, particularly in the research universities. View quote
Joseph Stiglitz
Seeing an economy that is, in many ways, quite different from the one grows up in, helps crystallize issues: in one's own environment, one takes too much for granted, without asking why things are the way they are. View quote
Joseph Stiglitz
It's actually a tribute to the quality of economics teaching that they have persuaded so many generations of students to believe in so much that seems so counter to what the world is like. Many of the things that I'm going to describe make so much more common sense than these notions that seem counter to what ones eyes see every day. View quote
Joseph Stiglitz
Macroeconomic policy can never be devoid of politics: it involves fundamental trade-offs and affects different groups differently. View quote
Joseph Stiglitz
The extra curricular activity in which I was most engaged - debating - helped shape my interests in public policy. (Joseph Stiglitz)
Development is about transforming the lives of people, not just transforming economies. View quote
Joseph Stiglitz
Rather than justice for all, we are evolving into a system of justice for those who can afford it. We have banks that are not only too big to fail, but too big to be held accountable. View quote
Joseph Stiglitz
My teachers helped guide and motivate me; but the responsibility of learning was left with me. View quote
Joseph Stiglitz
Most poor people earn more than minimum wage when they are working; their problem is not low wages. The problem comes when they are not working. View quote
Joseph Stiglitz
I recognized that information was, in many respects, like a public good, and it was this insight that made it clear to me that it was unlikely that the private market would provide efficient resource allocations whenever information was endogenous. View quote
Joseph Stiglitz
They [free market policies] were never based on solid empirical and theoretical foundations, and even as many of these policies were being pushed, academic economists were explaining the limitations of markets - for instance, whenever information is imperfect, which is to say always. View quote
Joseph Stiglitz
The top 1 percent have the best houses, the best educations, the best doctors, and the best lifestyles, but there is one thing that money doesn't seem to have bought: an understanding that their fate is bound up with how the other 99 percent live. Throughout history, this is something that the top 1 percent eventually do learn. Too late. View quote
Joseph Stiglitz
Intellectual property does not really belong in a trade agreement. View quote
Joseph Stiglitz
In the long run, the most important changes required to make globalization work are reforms to reduce the democratic deficit. View quote
Joseph Stiglitz
When I was at the World Bank, it would often be said in the face of obvious failure that our strategy was correct, it just wasn't implemented well. (Joseph Stiglitz)
International lending banks need to focus on areas where private investment doesn't go, such as infrastructure projects, education and poverty relief. View quote
Joseph Stiglitz
I grew up in a family in which political issues were often discussed, and debated intensely. View quote
Joseph Stiglitz
When you have a highly divided society, it's hard to come together to make investments in the common good. View quote
Joseph Stiglitz
There is a broad consensus, not only in the United States but in most of the world, that if you are in an economic downturn, you need to stimulate. Germany seems to be an exception. View quote
Joseph Stiglitz