Good afternoon, all--here is an article by Joseph Stiglitz, the respected economist we saw a bit of in our film "The Warning" last week, arguing that Larry Summers was not a good candidate for Fed chief, and that Janet Yellen was a better choice.
I think the article is of interest to us because it reviews some of the mistakes that led to the 2008 crisis and highlights why (in Stiglitz's view) regulation of banks and financial markets is important for everyone.
It's a long article--so do your best!
BTW, he cites Summers' support for repealing the Glass-Steagall Act. That was the major bank regulation law enacted in the U.S. Congress in the 1930s after the near-collapse of the banking stystem during the Great Depression. Among other things, it required commercial banks and insurance companies to stay out of investment banking, limiting speculative investment activity to Wall Street investment firms. It also banned mergers of those different types of companies: commercial banks couldn't buy or merge with investment banks or insurance companies, for instance.
Between 1933, when Glass-Steagall became law, and 1999, when it was repealed and replaced by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the U.S. had no serious economic crises. Since then...
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