American economist Joseph Stiglitz has a contrarian message for Australians: Don't become too American.
The Nobel laureate's rock-star reception in Sydney last week probably drove tea partiers crazy back home as he explained why the U.S. economy isn't the state-of the-art machine conservatives might think, with its widening income inequality and decrepit infrastructure. It was fascinating to hear Stiglitz take on Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott for trafficking in the same economic ideologies threatening to turn the American dream into a nightmare of permanent haves and have-nots.
"The problem is not the economics; the problem is the politics," Stiglitz told a capacity crowd of more than 2,000 on July 8, imploring them to reconsider their affection for the U.S. economic model.