Arianna Huffington and Joseph Stiglitz: The Way Forward

Arianna Huffington and Joseph Stiglitz shared the stage as part of the Meeting of the Minds series. It was “unscripted and unmoderated,” as Huffington noted.

Sarah Rahman of NearSay reported on the discussion about social media, journalism and today’s economic climate. “Stiglitz described today’s economic climate as nothing making ‘sense,’” Rahman wrote. “That the government is caught giving ‘high bonuses for record losses.’

This video highlights some of that discussion and more, including talk of Stiglitz’s upcoming appearance at the Congressional Oversight Committee, an agreement that we are living with a hybrid form of capitalism where “you socialize losses and privatize profits,” and why the sense of urgency to save the financial industry has not been applied to the creation of jobs. On that last note, Stiglitz had this to say: “We have the best government money can buy,” he wryly commented. Remarking on the responsibility and obligation corporations have to maximize profits, he added, pointedly: “They almost have an obligation to buy the politicians in any way they can, so long as they don’t go to jail.”