Joseph Stiglitz Wants to Tackle US Inequality With Antitrust Rules

By Catherine Bosley, Bloomberg

The U.S. should tackle worsening social inequality with measures including updated antitrust rules, according to economist Joseph Stiglitz.

The Nobel prize-winner cited the problems of de-industrialization, an opioid crisis, stagnant wages and a lack of corporate investment despite high profitability, saying they were contributing to a palpable rise in voter frustration and populism.

“One of the problems is the concentration of market power — and that means we have to have renewed competition policy, renewed antitrust,” Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University, said in a Bloomberg Television Interview with Francine Lacqua and Tom Keene.

He also criticized Facebook Inc., arguing that it shouldn’t have been allowed to buy WhatsApp or Instagram.

The social media company has come under firefor a cascade of missteps such as allowing third parties to obtain data on millions of users without their consent. Its plan to integrate other services services raised concerns the move was designed to avoid a regulatory breakup and accelerate user data collection ahead of potentially tougher privacy rules.

“We’re going to need stronger regulation to protect our privacy, to protect data from being used to exploit us,” Stiglitz said.

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