[A-List] Bush's Policies Are Accelerating Climate Change

[Bill Totten <shimogamo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Interview of Joseph Stiglitz

by Hasnain Kazim

Spiegel Online (June 06 2007)


Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz doesn't think much of the G-8 summit
- and even less of US President George W Bush. In a conversation with
Spiegel Online, Stiglitz, an economist and critic of globalization,
reveals that he has some hopes for the summit in Heiligendamm nonetheless.


Spiegel: Mr. Stiglitz, you are considered an intellectual icon of the
critics of globalization. Is this embarrassing to you or are you proud
of this role?

Stiglitz: You're right, I am very critical of globalization. Why should
it be embarrassing to me? It isn't easy to find an approach that
benefits everyone. But very few people benefit from the way things are
going now.


Spiegel: Only a few? The economies in some developing and emerging
nations are growing rapidly, and many people finally face the prospect
of escaping poverty.

Stiglitz: Both in industrialized nations and in countries like India and
China, often referred to as the winners of globalization, there are
hundreds of millions of people who in fact suffer from globalization.
The negative consequences are especially glaring in China and India,
where only a few people are becoming phenomenally wealthy, while the
poorest of the poor remain poor.


Spiegel: How exactly do you define globalization?

Stiglitz: To put it succinctly, globalization is the growing together of
the world, brought about by lower transport costs, better and cheaper
infrastructure and the tearing down of manmade barriers.


Spiegel: And you are critical of this?

Stiglitz: I do, of course, see the positive side of globalization,
namely that it has helped many people in developing countries overcome
the sense of being excluded. The Internet is a stage for everyone, and
pressure can be generated there. But that's the theory. I am critical of
what in fact are very different consequences for the development of
mankind. In reality, social inequality in the world is growing.


Spiegel: Leading economists are opposed to generously handing out
billions. What does the ideal development aid look like, in your view?

Stiglitz: There are various ways to help developing countries. Classic
development aid is one - and it isn't half bad. It has already helped
millions of people in the world to fight disease, for example. There is
absolutely no doubt that development aid can contribute to elevating the
standard of living. Of course, there are always bad investments and
money that winds up disappearing into shady hands. But that's the same
everywhere, both in the private sector and in government spending.

The many billions of dollars that the US government has spent on the
Iraq war were wasted.


Spiegel: What are your hopes for the G-8 summit in Heiligendamm?

Stiglitz: So far the United States has refused to join other
industrialized nations to find a reasonable solution to protect the
climate. There are serious efforts in every industrialized nation to do
something about protecting the environment - just not in the United
States. I want to see the heads of state in Heiligendamm confront
President Bush and say: We need an international set of regulations, and
you, as the world's most powerful man, have an obligation to be part of it!


Spiegel: Bush announced his own proposals on climate change last week ...

Stiglitz: Those attending the summit must make it clear to Bush that his
policies are accelerating climate change and that countries are being
destroyed as a result. Bush doesn't understand civil language. The
problem has to be made clear to him in more drastic terms.


Spiegel: There are concerns in the G-8 nations that efforts to avert
climate change will be destroyed by rapid growth in China and India.

Stiglitz: And that's why the group of G-8 nations must be expanded. It
doesn't do any good for a small group of people from a handful of rich
countries to discuss the problems of the world without the participation
of the world's largest nations. That includes China and India, but also
many other countries.


Spiegel: Brazil, Mexico and South Africa, the other three major emerging
economies? All nuclear powers? Or Saudi Arabia, as the world's biggest
oil producer?

Stiglitz: I don't know how the summit could be structured so that all
interests are properly represented. One could find arguments for and
against any country. One thing is clear, and that is that in its current
form, with eight countries, it isn't working.


Spiegel: Would it be better if these eight nations didn't talk?

Stiglitz: Talking is always good. But President Bush has proven to be
extremely obstinate in the past. His guiding principle has always been
that his policy would ultimately prevail, no matter what the issue - and
no matter how his policies affected the rest of the world.

_____

Joseph Eugene Stiglitz, born in 1943, currently teaches economics at
Columbia University in New York. He was economic advisor to former US
President Bill Clinton from 1995 to 1997, and chief economist at the
World Bank from 1997 to 1999. He describes his experiences from this
period in his life in the bestseller Shadows of Globalization (2002).
His latest book, Making Globalization Work, was published in September
2006 by W W Norton. Stiglitz, together with George Akerlof and Michael
Spence, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,486986,00.html


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