“If he PP and vox govern, the economic consequences will be disastrous“This is how forceful the Nobel Prize in Economics has been Joseph Stiglitz when asked about the post-electoral scenarios in Spain. Hired as an adviser by Sumar to supervise his electoral program, the American economist has had words of praise for the work of the coalition government and harsh criticism of the policies of the central banks, which by maintaining a policy of raising interest rates are suffocating, in his opinion, the economy and the creation of jobs.
From the global problem that over-indebtedness is causing to developing countries, to hyperlocalism and how it is now essential to mutate towards greener cities from which to combat climate crisis, going through the feasibility of the four-day work week. The Nobel prize winner in economics did not shy away from any topic in the act with journalists that he held this Wednesday afternoon at the Palau de la Generalitat. Stiglitz, 80, has interrupted his vacation in cadaques to get closer to Palau, where he will receive this Thursday from the Government the Catalonia International Award.
historical critic of the globalization and of the neoliberalismStiglitz has shown himself to be very hard on the possibility that a right-wing majority will come out of the polls on July 23 between PP and vox. “His economic policies would be a disaster, neoliberalism has already shown over the last 40 years that it brings with it more inequality“, he stated.
The Nobel Prize winner in economics has defended the need for governments to promote public housing stocks to avoid urban overcrowding and build cities that do not have to choose between exorbitant land prices -which drive out their less affluent neighbors- and hyper-built cities without green areas.
“Disaster” economically and an increase in territorial tensions politically, he added. Faced with the “conciliatory” policy that the government of Pedro Sánchez has practiced -via pardons for the pro-independence prisoners and pacts with the nationalist parties-, the American Nobel Prize winner intuits that a victory for the right would once again remove territorial conflicts and “shoot new decibels”.
“Sánchez has done a good job, I am surprised that he does not have more support,” he concluded, referring to the different polls that place the struggle between the coalition and the right in favor of the latter.
In favor of the 4-day work week
Green transition, increasing investment in innovation and relocating part of the industry, geographically shortening manufacturing chains are some of the recipes that the American economist gives to the ruler who wants to listen to him.
He is not a supporter of decrease overall to reduce the climate footprintRather, it considers that economies should reorder their spending priorities and that, at the international level, developing states should have priority for growth -and spending resources for it- than the current economically dominant states.
Stiglitz is a well-known critic of hyperglobalization and considers that until now there has been a certain consensus that “borders [económicamente hablando] they didn’t make sense”. An error from which he believes many woke up with the shock of the pandemic, given the lack of industrial capacities that many countries demonstrated, that they could not even manufacture masks, having outsourced all manufacturing. He believes that the world is moving, in this sense, towards deglobalization.
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Within that future that he envisions, with greener cities, Stiglitz considers that one of the keys will be to reduce displacement as much as possible. And, specifically, he points out displacements for work reasons. According to the Ctesc report, one out of every three journeys made every day on Catalan roads is for work reasons and the distance traveled during them has skyrocketed in the last 30 years.
To achieve this, the Nobel Prize winner in economics has been in favor of implementing a reduction in working hours through the four-day work week model. “Working less to consume less and have more free time seems perfectly reasonable to me,” she stated, thinking both of climate objectives and of cushioning the impact that new technologies and artificial intelligence are having on employment.