Luncheon with Prof. Joseph E. Stiglitz,
Professor of Economics at Columbia University;
Former Vice-President and Chief Economist of the World Bank
December 19, 2013

Prof. Joseph E. Stiglitz, Professor of Economics at Columbia University; Former Vice-President and Chief Economist of the World Bank convened with GRF members and a group of GRF Young Scholars at a Luncheon on December 19th. During his speech, Prof. Stiglitz gave an overview on the current global economic outlook and the prospects for growth, with special emphasis on the ongoing Eurozone crisis and slow recovery in the US. He defined the Eurozone as “an unbalanced set of economic relations” while he emphasized that the diagnosis is consistently wrong and the proposed reforms will solve the problem neither today nor tomorrow. Prof. Stiglitz asserted that both the global economy and US economy have not recovered better due to “structural transformation”, “growing inequality”, “global imbalances” and “austerity”, highligthing that the countries are operating far below their potential. Following his speech where he also commented on the robust growth potential of the emerging countries, Prof. Stiglitz received a wide range of questions from the participants.