How are we to return to the golden age of progressive capitalism? On
Democracy Now, the online broadcaster, Stiglitz was asked in an interview: "should it be progressive capitalism or workers power?" He replied,
"the market is going to have to play an important role. So, that's why I wanted to use the word "capitalism." But I wanted to signal that the form of capitalism that we've seen over the last 40 years has not been working for most people. And that's why I talk about people. We have to have progressive capitalism. We have to tame capitalism and redirect capitalism so it serves our society. You know, people are not supposed to serve the economy; the economy is supposed to serve our people". When he was asked "Hasn't capitalism always done that (ie serve the rich and the monopolies rather than the poor and workers)?", he responded
"Not to the extent that it has."
Stiglitz's views are either pure naivety or clever sophistry –or maybe both. Does he really think that there was a period when capitalism benefited both workers and corporations; rich and poor? The 'golden age' after 1945 up to the late 1960s was the exception in advanced capitalist economies and then only for those economies, not for Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. For the greater part of the globe, those decades were ones of dire poverty and a battle against imperialist exploitation.