The Wisconsin Union Directorate's 2006 Distinguished Lecture Series hosted the 2001 Nobel Prize winner in economics Wednesday as the last lecturer of the semester.
Joseph Stiglitz spoke to a packed Memorial Union Theater about his book ""Making Globalization Work."" Stiglitz was the 1979 recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal, which is awarded every two years to the best economist under age 40. Stiglitz was the former Senior Vice President and Chief Economist for World Bank and chaired Pres. Clinton's Council of Economic Advisors from 1995 to 1997.
Stiglitz focused on why globalization is not working and stressed that it has not lived up to the promises that were made when the idea first came out.
""Economists think they have learned something in the last 25 years,"" Stiglitz said. ""If there are improvements in markets, you would have thought there would be more rapid growth and more stable growth. Yet, those [countries] who listened to these predictions were worse off.""
Stiglitz used Brazil as an example, whose economic growth before 1980 was 5.7 per year. Today, he said Brazil would be jubilant with a 3 percent growth.
Stiglitz added globalization increases the disparity between rich and poor countries especially in the area of intellectual properties. These properties include patents that limit knowledgeable power.
""You should not restrict the use of knowledge,"" Stiglitz said. ""Otherwise you create a monopoly, which is one of the worst inefficiencies in our economy.""
Stiglitz also discussed global warming, which he attributes to the failure of global governance and what he considers to be the most important environmental problem today. According to Stiglitz, the costs of not addressing the issue far outweigh the costs of addressing it.
""If you're not going to solve environmental problems, it does you no good to solve economic problems,"" he said.
