Top economist: US coronavirus response is like
'third world' country
Joseph Stiglitz attacks Donald Trump, saying US on
course for second Great Depression
Larry
Elliott
Wed 22 Apr
2020 12.37 BSTLast modified on Wed 22 Apr 2020 18.30 BST
Donald
Trump’s botched handling of the Covid-19 crisis has left the US looking like a
“third world” country and on course for a second Great Depression, one of the
world’s leading economists has warned.
In a
withering attack on the president, Joseph Stiglitz said millions of people were
turning to food banks, turning up for work due to a lack of sick pay and dying
because of health inequalities.
The Nobel
prize-winning economist said: “The numbers turning to food banks are just
enormous and beyond the capacity of them to supply. It is like a third world
country. The public social safety net is not working.”
Stiglitz, a
long-term critic of Trump, said 14% of the population was dependent on food
stamps and predicted the social infrastructure could not cope with an
unemployment rate that could hit 30% in the coming months.
“We have a
safety net that is inadequate. The inequality in the US is so large. This
disease has targeted those with the poorest health. In the advanced world, the
US is one of the countries with the poorest health overall and the greatest
health inequality.”
Stiglitz
said Republicans had opposed proposals to give those affected by coronavirus 10
days’ sick leave, meaning many employees were going to work even while
infected. “The Republicans said no because they said it would set a bad
precedent. It is literally unbelievable.”
He added:
“The safety net is not adequate and is propagating the disease. There is very
weak unemployment insurance and people don’t think they can rely on it.”
During an
interview with the Guardian to mark the paperback publication of his book
People, Power, and Profits, Stiglitz was asked whether the US might be heading
for a second Great Depression.
“Yes is the
answer in short,” he said. “If you leave it to Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell
[the Republican Senate majority leader] we will have a Great Depression. If we
had the right policy structure in place we could avoid it easily.”
Stiglitz
said that as a result of Trump’s mismanagement, the White House office
responsible for pandemics had been closed, funding for the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention had been cut, and the US had gone into the crisis
without enough testing kits, masks and protective gear. Encouraged by Trump,
some parts of the US were determined to reopen in a way that would facilitate
the transmission of the disease and lead to a fresh outbreak, he added.
“In those
circumstances it won’t be the government enforcing the lockdown, it will be
fear. The concern is that people are not going to be spending on anything other
than food and that’s the definition of a Great Depression.
“We were
unprepared but, even given the degree of unpreparedness, Trump’s decision to
make this about politics rather than about science has meant we have responded
far more poorly.”
Stiglitz
said that if Trump were defeated in the presidential contest in November and
the Democrats took control of both houses of Congress there was a chance of the
US moving in a more progressive direction, but he warned Republicans would
fight dirty in order to cling on to power.
“There is
voter suppression and gerrymandering. The Republican party knows it’s a
minority party and there is a no-holds-barred struggle going on to make sure a
minority party rules America.”
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Stiglitz
said the current crisis would force countries to make themselves less
vulnerable, and this would lead to shorter supply chains and a greater emphasis
on self-sufficiency in food and energy.
He added
that the complexity of modern production methods meant autarky was not feasible
but added: “Fighting global pandemics and climate change require global
cooperation. It’s just that the president of the United States doesn’t
understand that.
“I hope we
emerge from this with the perspective that multilateralism is even more
important than we thought. It can’t just be a corporate-driven globalisation.
We have to make it more resilient.’
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