World Bank policy on tiger trade and global warming

[Guest guest]

Dear all,

There have been some discussions on World Bank's policies on

tiger farming and also related issues concerning global warming and the

concomitant role of individuals and organisations. In this regard, I would

like to state that I was able to discuss some of these issues(not all

though) during a meeting I had with Mr Joseph Stiglitz, former Vice

President and Chief Economist of the World Bank two years ago. I interviewed

Mr Stiglitz for a small article regarding his childhood but our discussions

went way beyond that(Article link here :

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1071121/asp/telekids/story_8570674.asp )

During our meeting, Mr Stiglitz was savagely critical of some of the World

Bank's policies with reference to Asia.

Mr Stiglitz has written extensively on issues surrounding the World Bank's

policies that may be helpful in understanding their stance on the global

tiger trade and his personal stance on global warming and related issues.

Many of his articles can be accessed here :

( http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/209/42796.html ) An

article by Mr Stiglitz on global warming can be read here :

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1115-27.htm

For a better understanding of World Bank economic policies that are

relevant to the tiger trade situation, I would recommend the book *Stability

with Growth: Macroeconomics, Liberalization, and Developme*nt (Initiative

for Policy Dialogue Series C); by Joseph Eugene Stiglitz, Jose Antonio

Ocampo, Shari Spiegel, Ricardo Ffrench-Davis, and Deepak Nayyar; Oxford

University Press, 2006.

There is a strong economic argument against the viability of tiger farming

as compared to the conservation, animal welfare and animal rights ones.

Therefore these documents are worth perusing.

Best wishes and kind regards,

 

Joseph E. Stiglitz is especially well-known as a critic of the reigning

international economic policies and the institutions that enforce them – the

International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the United States Treasury

Department. After a distinguished academic career on the faculty of MIT,

Yale and Stanford, Stiglitz joined the Clinton administration in 1993 as

member of the Council of Economic Advisors. He later was named the Council's

Chairman. In 1997 he took the post of Senior Vice President and Chief

Economist at the World Bank Though a consummate political insider, Stiglitz

grew increasingly disillusioned with the failures of neo-liberal policy and

began to voice his thinking in public speeches. Increasingly outspoken, he

eventually was ousted from his World Bank post, allegedly on orders from US

Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. Since leaving the bank, Stiglitz has

sharpened his criticism further, making embarrassing revelations about the

role of the IMF in the Russian loan scandal, among other things. In mid

2001, he joined faculty of Columbia University and on 10 October 2001, it

was announced that he would be awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Science.

 

This section contains articles about Stiglitz's stormy career at the World

Bank, texts of some of his speeches and policy papers, media interviews and

other materials. Of the many senior staff who have resigned in disgust from

the World Bank over the years, Stiglitz has provided us with a deep and

intelligent critique.