Quotes from Joseph E. Stiglitz

Trump doesn't have a plan to help the country; he has a plan to continue the robbery of the majority by those at the top.

as the "good" middle-class jobs—requiring a moderate level of skills, like autoworkers' jobs—seemed to be disappearing relative to those at the bottom, requiring few skills, and those at the top, requiring greater skill levels. Economists refer to this as the "polarization" of the labor force.

People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices."6

If one group's economic opportunities leave it much poorer than other groups, then the interactions of the first group with people from other groups will be limited, and it is likely to develop a different culture. Then ideas about intrinsic differences of the poor group are more likely to take root and to persist.

truth-telling, truth-discovering, and truth-verification institutions evolved, and we owe to them much of the success of our economy and our democracy.21 Central among them is an active media. Like all institutions, it is fallible; but its investigations are part of our society's overall system of checks and balances, providing an important public good.

we have designed a legal system that is an arms race: the two protagonists work hard to out-lawyer each other, which is to say outspend each other, since good and clever lawyers are expensive. The outcome is often determined less by the merits of the case or issue than by the depth of the pockets. In the process, there is massive distortion of resources, not just in the litigation but in actions taken to affect the outcome of litigation and to prevent litigation in the first place.

one can't really separate out any individual's contributions from those of others. Even in the context of technological change, most inventions entail the synthesis of preexisting elements rather than invention de novo. Today, at least in many critical sectors, a large fraction of all advances depend on basic research funded by the government.

There is another way for moneyed interests to get what they want out of government: convince the 99 percent that they have shared interests. This strategy requires an impressive sleight of hand; in many respects the interests of the 1 percent and the 99 percent differ markedly. The fact that the 1 percent has so successfully shaped public perception testifies to the malleability of beliefs. When others engage in it, we call it "brainwashing" and "propaganda."1

The American economy today is characterized, to too great an extent, by underregulated, monopolistic markets, where wealth creation has been replaced by exploitation.

Reagan redirected the country's economy, but he also crystallized a redirection of values toward more materialism and more selfishness. The failure of his approach to yield the fruits that had been promised did not result in the course correction that one would have hoped. It led only to a doubling down on a flawed set of ideas.

Just as Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib have eroded America's moral authority, so the Bush administration's fiscal housekeeping has eroded our economic authority.

A central thesis of chapters 2 and 3 is that market failures—and the failure of government to circumscribe them—play a key role in explaining inequality in America. At the top there are rents (such as monopoly rents); at the bottom there is underinvestment in human capital. Hidden subsidies that distort the market and rules of the game that give an upper hand to those at the top have compounded the problems.

Incluso estalló una discusión entre dos de mis compañeros, un antiguo policía que criticó de manera virulenta al Gobierno y un exmaestro de escuela que le señaló que la protección social y los pagos por discapacidad de los que hoy dependía él mismo como expolicía provenían de ese Gobierno.

experiments show that bankers—especially when they are reminded that they are bankers—act in a more dishonest and selfish way.50 They are shaped by their profession

Oxfam found that the top 1 percent of the world now owned nearly half the world's wealth— and are on track to own as much of the rest of the 99 percent combined by 2016.

If globalization left many behind, if Reagan's reforms led to more people in poverty and income stagnation for large fractions of the population, the trick was to stop gathering data about poverty and stop talking about inequality.

A lo largo de la historia, las economías que han florecido son aquellas en las que los acuerdos se sellan con un apretón de manos. Sin confianza, los tratos de negocios basados en el consenso de que los detalles más complicados se aclararán más tarde dejan de ser posibles. Sin confianza, cada participante mira a su alrededor para ver cómo y cuándo van a traicionarle sus interlocutores.

El aumento de las desigualdades corroe la confianza; tiene un impacto económico similar al de un disolvente universal. Crea un mundo económico en el que hasta los ganadores son precavidos. Y los perdedores… En toda transacción, en todo contacto con un jefe, una empresa o un burócrata, ven la mano de alguien que quiere aprovecharse de ellos.

en los noventa, la confianza en el poder de los mercados se había generalizado hasta tal punto que la liberalización financiera era impulsada por algunos de mis colegas dentro de la Administración, y al final también por el propio Clinton.

We know through advances in behavioral economics and marketing that one can manipulate perceptions and beliefs.

Cigarette companies succeeded in using these methods to cast doubt on scientific findings that smoking was bad for health; and firms of all kinds succeed in persuading individuals to buy products that they might not otherwise have bought

nuestros fracasos económicos: al gestionar adecuadamente la transición de una economía industrial a otra de servicios, al controlar el sector financiero, al manejar como es debido la globalización y sus consecuencias y, lo más importante, al responder a la desigualdad creciente. Parece que evolucionamos de manera resuelta hacia una economía y una democracia del 1 por ciento, por el 1 por ciento y para el 1 por ciento.

during the 2008 crisis, corporate welfare reached new heights. In the great bailout of the Great Recession, one corporation alone, AIG, got more than $180 billion—more than was spent on welfare to the poor from 1990 to 2006.68 As

tres etapas: engaño, obstrucción y desempoderamiento.