The second is about Professor Stiglitz's definition of the problem, as one of "market failure." The third question focuses on the contemporary global crisis; I call for a more comprehensive definition of the crisis, from the point of view of society and not just the state and market binary that frames Professor Stiglitz's discourse. Finally, I ask that Professor Stiglitz situate our own crisis - the crisis of Uganda and East Africa within an expanded frame.__
The Clinton years_
Deregulation of the financial system in the US began with the Clinton administration's repeal of key sections of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933. That Act had separated commercial and investment banking since the Great Depression era. The repeal of that Act was key to the deregulation of derivatives. In 2008, Clinton denied responsibility for refusing to regulate derivatives. He changed his mind in 2010, then blaming his advisors, among whom were Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Larry Summers and the Chair of his Council of Economic Advisors, Joe Stiglitz. Larry Summers went on to become President of Harvard University. Joseph Stiglitz went on to be Chief economist of the World Bank and then professor at Columbia University. Summers showed little remorse for his role in the deregulation era. Joe Stiglitz, in contrast, became the best known critic of deregulation.__My first question is not new. Academic reviewers of Stiglitz have often wondered when he saw the light: did Professor Stiglitz oppose deregulation at the time or change his mind when its consequences became clear? Should we understand his critique of deregulation as foresight or hindsight, foresight in 1996 or hindsight after his time as Clinton's senior policy advisor?__Professor Stiglitz addressed this issue in a book he wrote on the Clinton era, a book titled 'The Roaring Nineties:_A New History of the World's Most Prosperous Decade'. The question I am interested in was posed by an academic reviewer of the book, Robert Pollin_ of Department of Economics at University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
