On March 12, 2025, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz joined Christopher Ragan, founding director of McGill’s Max Bell School of Public Policy, for a thought-provoking conversation about Stiglitz’s latest book, The Road to Freedom: Economics and the Good Society.
Stiglitz is an American economist and a professor at Columbia University. He is also the co-chair of the High-Level Expert Group on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress at the OECD, and the Chief Economist of the Roosevelt Institute. Stiglitz was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2001 and the John Bates Clark Medal in 1979. He is a former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank and a former chair of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers. In 2000, Stiglitz founded the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, a think tank on international development based at Columbia University. In 2011 Stiglitz was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Known for his pioneering work on asymmetric information, Stiglitz's research focuses on income distribution, climate change, corporate governance, public policy, macroeconomics and globalization. He is the author of numerous books including, most recently, People, Power, and Profits, Rewriting the Rules of the European Economy, and Globalization and Its Discontents Revisited.
The discussion between Stiglitz and Ragan centered on the book’s central arguments on the failures of neoliberal capitalism. Instead, Stiglitz argued, it has driven inequality and weakened democracy. Ragan and Stiglitz explored the history of neoliberalism, specifically its association with the post-war writings and policies of Friedman and Friedrich Hayek.
Stiglitz described how his new book challenges conventional wisdom on markets, democracy, and the true meaning of freedom, which, in his view, cannot exist without addressing inequality and market failures. The Road to Freedom takes a practical approach to addressing these problems. The conversation acknowledged the challenges of Stiglitz’s “progressive capitalism,” which requires a Rawlsian “Veil of Ignorance,” meaning we must design rules as if we didn’t know our place in society.
Ragan and Stiglitz emphasized the importance and possibility of change. However, Stiglitz emphasized, we must be willing to understand freedom as a collective right to opportunity, security, and dignity.Â
Turning to contemporary politics, Stiglitz warned how inequality secures power for the wealthy, particularly in the U.S., where economic inequality threatens democracy. Stiglitz discussed this problem in depth the following day in an at the "Attention: Freedom, Interrupted" conference.
Stiglitz’s keynote conversation: tariffs, authoritarian tactics, and tech oligarchsÂ
In conversation with journalist Jayme Poisson of CBC’s , Stiglitz critiqued Trump-era economic policies. Far from protecting American workers, Stiglitz argued, Trump’s tariffs on Canada and other trading partners raised prices domestically and hurt American consumers most of all. “Tariffs hurt the country. So where you impose tariffs, one has to be very selective, because there is a risk that they will harm you,” he said.Â
But the stakes, Stiglitz warned, extend beyond economics. He pointed to Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric, attacks on the media, and undermining of scientific institutions as a sign of a broader threat to democracy. In responding to this threat in the Canadian context, Stiglitz encouraged Canada to be resilient to U.S. pressures through the creation of robust economic policies.  Â
Stiglitz additionally critiqued tech-billionaires, whom he likened to the oligarchs of America’s Gilded Age. However, he highlighted an important difference: unlike earlier industrialists who founded philanthropic institutions, figures like Elon Musk have no concern for the public. Regarding the relationship between Musk and Trump, Stiglitz said, “the way that Musk and he have trampled the rule of law is what you'd expect out of a fascist.”
