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PLAGUED BY TRUMPISM

JOSEPH E. STIGLITZ

s an educator, I’m always looking for “teachable moments” –
Acurrent events that illustrate and reinforce the principles on
which I’ve been lecturing. And there is nothing like a pandemic to
focus attention on what really matters.
The COVID-19 crisis is rich in lessons, especially for the United
States. One takeaway is that viruses do not carry passports; in fact,
they don’t observe national borders – or nationalist rhetoric – at all.
In our closely integrated world, a contagious disease originating in
one country can and will go global.1
The spread of diseases is one negative side effect of globaliza-
tion. Whenever such cross-border crises emerge, they demand a
global, cooperative response, as in the case of climate change. Like
viruses, greenhouse-gas emissions are wreaking havoc and im-
posing massive costs on countries around the world through the
damage caused by global warming and the associated extreme wea-
ther events.
No US presidential administration has done more to undermine
global cooperation and the role of government than that of Donald
Trump. And yet, when we face a crisis like an epidemic or a hur-
ricane, we turn to government, because we know that such events
demand collective action. We cannot go it alone, nor can we rely on
the private sector. All too often, profit-maximizing firms will see
crises as opportunities for price gouging, as is already evident in
therising pricesof face masks.

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