I have not read enough of and about Stiglitz but the very fact he was
addressing WIDER in Helsinki should give us a clue (a deduction of sorts
from the subject header). WIDER is peopled by the left of all stripes but
certainly quite left if Washingtonians are concerned (exclude me I live in
the other Washington among other places!). And it is a United Nations
University entity. It is one of those places where Cartesian rationality is
shredded to pieces! Several excellent publications have come out: I can
think of Marglin and Marglin, Colcough, Ajit Singh, Schor, Dreze and Sen,
Banuri, etc. It was headed (I do not know at this time who) by a Sri
Lankan. Thus it is not surprising what Stiglitz had to say. Any reasonable
person irrespective of ideology presumably recognizes the importance of
institutions in the development process and the state is one such v.
important institution. Virtually all my work addresses this issue.
Unfortunately I carry the passport of a country whose government has been
designed as a well-meaning institution but performs precisely in ways that
Reagan would have sermoned about!
Being dubbed a traitor must imply that Stiglitz held another position. I am
not in a position to evaluate that.
Cheers, Anthony D'Costa
