The Hindu Business Line : A speech peppered with humour

Professor Joseph Stiglitz's views are now so well known across the world that one didn't expect to find anything radically new in a speech from him. But in his lecture on Thursday , even those intimately familiar with the Nobel laureate's views had something to take home — a hearty laugh.

Years ago Prof. Stiglitz received a remarkable mail — a request from a Chinese publisher to write a preface for a pirated edition of his book. "I was enthusiastic about it," he said. "But my publisher did not share my enthusiasm."

On another day, as Prof. Stiglitz was walking towards a bookstore in Taiwan, he was wondering whether to be happy or annoyed in case he found pirated copies of his books. If there was a pirated publication, it would be terrible because it would mean they had been stolen and theft was very wrong. On the other hand, if he found no pirated book of his, it meant that they had "ignored me". "I was more concerned about my being ignored, than losing some royalty," he said. The bookstore did not disappoint him. "They had not ignored me."

Prof. Stiglitz is known as much for his tongue-in-cheek comments as for his blunt criticisms. He observed that the post-Seattle WTO negotiations had called for a development round and in the Doha round, the US promised to reduce subsidies. But "as an act of good faith" the US doubled the subsidies.

The economist had some observations on the wrong turns taken by nations. For 75 years until 1980, Brazil was growing at an impressive rate of 6 per cent per annum. "Then they thought about growing." The result — today even a 2-3 per cent growth is considered good. This, he said, was because of policy shift towards "excessive fiscal austerity".

One of his many stinging criticisms of US attitude was in relation to the country's ability to retain a veto power in the IMF. "G1" or Group of one, Prof. Stiglitz called the US.

According to Prof. Stiglitz, Free Trade Agreements are really `managed trade agreements' to suit the interests of the US. A true free trade agreement would say, "we are eliminating subsidies and tariffs and removing non-tariff barriers, and you do the same".

What does the US government instruct the US Trade Representative headed for Geneva? It does not say, "Come back with an agreement that is fair". Instead, it says, "come back with an agreement that is the best for the US". Which means, "best for campaign contributors", Prof. Stiglitz quipped.

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