3 Review(s)

The Price of Inequality, by Nobel Laureate, Joseph E. Stiglitz, explains why we are experiencing such alarmingly high levels of inequality - and why this is not inevitable. The author asserts that economic and political reforms are the only ways that can make markets function the way they should be, for the betterment of the society. Summary of the Book Only a negligible part of the human population has the best houses, the best education, the best medical aid, and the best lifestyles. But there is one thing that money doesn't seem to have bought: an understanding that their fate is bound up with how the major part of the society lives. In this timely book, Stiglitz identifies three major causes of our difficult situation: markets not working the way they must be (being neither efficient nor stable); political systems failing to correct the drawbacks of the market; and the current economic and political systems being fundamentally unfair. The book mainly concentrates on the gross inequality to which these systems give rise collectively, but further explains how inextricably connected they are. Presenting evidence that investment, not austerity, is essential for productivity, Stiglitz discusses realistic solutions for increasing social mobility. About Joseph E. Stiglitz Joseph Eugene Stiglitz was the Chief Economist at the World Bank until January 2000. He is currently serving as the University Professor of the Columbia Business School and Chair of the Management Board and Director of Graduate Summer Programs, Brooks World Poverty Institute, University of Manchester. He was honoured with the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001. Some of the other bestselling books authored by Stiglitz are Globalization and Its Discontents, The Roaring Nineties, Making Globalization Work, and Freefall.