Freefall: Free Markets and the Sinking of the Global Economy - Softcover

Stiglitz, Joseph

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1846143217 ISBN 13: 9781846143212

Publisher: Viking/Allen Lane, 2010

Synopsis

Out of the crisis of our times, Joseph Stiglitz's Freefall: Free Markets and the Sinking of the Global Economy is a convincing, coherent and humane account that goes to the heart of how we run our societies.

When the world economy went into freefall, so too did our unquestioning faith in markets. But what happens now? Are bailouts and stern lectures enough, or do we need a rethink of our entire financial system?

This acclaimed and inspiring book, by one of the world's leading economic thinkers, dissects the flawed ideas that led to the credit crunch, but also looks to the future. Drawing on his years spent shaping policy at the World Bank, Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz shows why far more radical reforms are needed to avoid future crises, why the cost of recovery should be borne by the financial sector, and how we now have the opportunity to create a new global economic order.

'Bang on the money ... unafraid to ask tough questions ... we need more of his ilk'
  Will Hutton, Observer

'A brilliant analysis ... always enthralling'
  Martin Jacomb, Spectator Business

'A powerful new book'
  Devin Leonard, The New York Times

'A seer of almost Keynesian proportions ... this is Joe Stiglitz's victory lap'
  Michael Hirsh, Newsweek

Joseph Stiglitz was Chief Economist at the World Bank until January 2000. He is currently University Professor of the Columbia Business School and Chair of the Management Board and Director of Graduate Summer Programs, Brooks World Poverty Institute, University of Manchester. He won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001 and is the author of the best-selling Globalization and Its Discontents, Making Globalization Work, The Roaring Nineties and The Price of Inequality, all published by Penguin.

About this title

Review

Stiglitz is the world's leading scholarly expert on market failure, and this crisis vindicates his life's work. There have been other broad-spectrum books on the genesis and dynamics of the collapse, but Freefall is the most comprehensive to date, grounded in both theory and factual detail . the definitive critique to date of how the Summers-Geithner strategy fails, both as economics and as politics . The tone of this book is good-humored and public-minded. --Robert Kuttner"

Asks some basic and provocative questions Freefall is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the roots of the financial crisis. Stiglitz brilliantly analyzes the economic reasons behind the banking collapse, but he goes much further, digging down to the wrongheaded national faith in the power of free markets to regulate themselves and provide wealth for all. --Chuck Leddy"

Freefall is a spirited attack on Wall Street, the free market and the Washington consensus. --David Smith"

Mr. Stiglitz uses his experience teaching to give the lay reader a lucid account of how overleveraged banks, a shoddy mortgage industry, predatory lending and unregulated trading contributed to the meltdown, and how, in his opinion, ill-conceived rescue efforts may have halted the freefall but have failed to grapple with more fundamental problems.... His prescience lends credibility to his trenchant analysis of the causes of the fiscal meltdown.--Michiko Kakutani

[W]hat brings this book to life is his formidable grasp of economic policy and strong sense of conviction about the blunders that have been made, especially with respect to the bank bailouts.--Jim Zarroli, NPR business reporter ""What We're Reading" "

As a Nobel Prize winner, member of the cabinet under former President Bill Clinton and chairman of his Council of Economic Advisers, Joseph E. Stiglitz has some practical ideas on how to ease the pain of the Great Recession and maybe help prevent the next one.--Carl Hartman

Freefall is a spirited attack on Wall Street, the free market and the Washington consensus. --David Smith

Stiglitz offers a powerful account of the financial meltdown and criticizes the Obama Administration for 'muddling through' rather than pushing aggressively for change.... An excellent overview from a Nobel prize-winning economist of what caused the crisis and what reforms should be enacted.... I can only hope Obama makes room for it on his nightstand.--James Pressley

About the Author

Joseph E. Stiglitz was Chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers 1995-7 and Chief Economist at the World Bank 1997-2000. He is currently University Professor at Columbia University, teaching in the Department of Economics, the School of International and Public Affairs, and the Graduate School of Business. He is also the Chief Economist of the Roosevelt Institute and a Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Society and the British Academy. He won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001 and is the bestselling author of Globalization and Its Discontents, The Roaring Nineties, Making Globalization Work, Freefall, The Price of Inequality and The Great Divide, all published by Penguin.

Edition details

• Publisher: Viking/Allen Lane
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1846143217
• ISBN 13: 9781846143212
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 362