VF: Stiglitz on Capitalist Fools

The Economic Crisis
Capitalist Fools
Behind the debate over remaking U.S. financial policy will be a debate over who’s to blame. It’s crucial to get the history right, writes a Nobel-laureate economist, identifying five key mistakes—under Reagan, Clinton, and Bush II—and one national delusion.
by Joseph E. Stiglitz January 2009

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and former Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan bookend two decades of economic missteps.

There will come a moment when the most urgent threats posed by the credit crisis have eased and the larger task before us will be to chart a direction for the economic steps ahead. This will be a dangerous moment. Behind the debates over future policy is a debate over history — a debate over the causes of our current situation. The battle for the past will determine the battle for the present. So it’s crucial to get the history straight.

full article at: http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/2009/01/stiglitz200901?printable=true&currentPage=all