A review by theangrylawngnome
Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy by Joseph E. Stiglitz

3.0

The author interjected his opinion far too often into the text, especially the last 50 or so pages, for me to really trust both his conclusions and his reasoning. Prof. Stiglitz certainly has no self-esteem issues, I guess that I can conclude.

Still, he knows his stuff and I am much more open to the sort of quasi-fascist economic system he seems to be proposing. (And please note I'm not using "fascist" in a pejorative sense here, I simply can't think of another term to describe an economic system where the means of production remain in private hands, but government has a say in just about everything, heavily regulates everything and structures all industries to put them in line with some sort of set of national goal or goals [see p. 292-93] on the goal bit. Heck, also for the recommendation of intervention on a massive scale.])

I'm also not how sure familiar he is w/the "Austrian School" of economics, since I am not either. It almost seems he thinks there's two colas on the shelf: Keynes and Friedman.

Funny that I'm reviewing this book this way. I'm about to write another review by someone w/radically different beliefs from Stiglitz that in some ways will be a carbon copy of this one. Go figure.