by Jennifer Coote
Introduction
Freefall: America, Free Markets and the Sinking of the Global Economy, J. Stiglitz, Norton/Allen Lane, 10. This Nobel Prize winner and strong critic of market imperfections provides an in-depth analysis of the fundamental flaws which underlay the global financial crisis. He starts with the emergence of the aggressive form of free-market capitalism of the past three decades and the resulting enormous increase in both wealth for some and stagnant or regressive incomes for many. After an analysis of the results, he offers a course for reform. In the present climate where it appears that little has been learnt, little will be effectively achieved.(continue…)