The New Geo-Economics

Global economic growth, offering connections and solutions that have enriched many and lifted more out of poverty, has slowed in recent months. Economist Joseph Stiglitz compares the processes in negotiating two agreements – the global climate agreement approved in Paris and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, yet to be ratified, a trade agreement among 12 nations including the United States, but not China. Stiglitz describes the climate agreement as a cooperative exercise in collective responsibility with transparency while the TPP is secretive and imbalanced in favor of developed and wealthy nations. “In place of global trade talks, the US and Europe have mounted a divide-and-conquer strategy, based on overlapping trade blocs and agreements,” Stiglitz writes, criticizing in particular an investment chapter in TPP that “severely constrains environmental, health, and safety regulation, and even financial regulations with significant macroeconomic impacts.” He supports open trade that is balanced and sustainable and urges rejection of TPP. – YaleGlobal

The New Geo-Economics

Economist Stiglitz compares the Paris climate agreement, open and cooperative, with the closed process of the limited Trans-Pacific Partnership
Joseph E. Stiglitz
Monday, January 11, 2016

Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics and University Professor at Columbia University, was chairman of President Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers and served as senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank. His most recent book, co-authored with Bruce Greenwald, is “Creating a Learning Society: A New Approach to Growth, Development, and Social Progress.”

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