Beggar-Thyself versus Beggar-Thy-Neighbor Policies: The Dangers of Intellectual Incoherence in Addressing the Global Financial Crisis

Stiglitz uses the global financial crisis that began in Thailand on July 2, 1997 to foreground some remarks on the preconditions necessary for full capital market liberalization to take place, and addresses the following questions: "Did various participants in the "bailouts" and the other actions related to various stages of the crisis-not only the governments of the affected countries but also governments of the countries bringing assistance and the international financial institutions-have incentives that, if not leading to the misguided decisions, at least made such decisions more likely? Would different decisions have been made if the decision-making process-including the participants in that process-had been different?