Globalization’s Mad Scientist: On Joseph Stiglitz

Globalization’s Mad Scientist: On Joseph Stiglitz

Books discussed: The Rebel Within: Joseph Stiglitz and the World Bank, ed. by Ha-joon Chang; Globalization and Its Discontents by Joseph E. Stiglitz; Making Globalization Work by Joseph E. Stiglitz.

Joseph Stiglitz neither looks nor behaves like a polished politician. The sixty-four-year-old professor of economics at Columbia University fits the stereotype of the rumpled academic, rushing to lectures with his jackets wrinkled and gray hair unkempt. What he says in his public addresses also runs contrary to most policymakers’ mannered declarations. Whether out of a willful desire to act impolitic or a simple ignorance of political calculations, Stiglitz has repeatedly violated the decorum of mainstream economic discussion. And in the process he has done more than perhaps any other individual to influence the unfolding debate about globalization.

For the World Bank, Stiglitz’s former employer, and the Internat...