Abstract
From the publisher:From the author of Globalization and Its Discontents comes a history of the boom and bust of the 1990s - how and why it happened, how the seeds of destruction were sown in the midst of apparent prosperity, and how America and the world are still failing to learn the lessons from what went wrong. One reason the invisible hand of market economics may be invisible is that it may not exist. So says former World Bank economist Stiglitz in his analysis of what went wrong with the economic boom and bust of the 1990s. His central contention is that the market fundamentalism of the neoliberals was far too excessive and that a role for government in managing and regulating the economy is not only salubrious, but absolutely necessary. The role of finance in the economy and politicians' cowardliness before elicits broad criticism as well.