Nobel Prize winning economist and former vice-president of the World Bank, Joseph Stiglitz, praised Venezuela’s economic growth, by Kiraz Janicke in October 2007.

“Venezuela’s economic growth has been very impressive in the last few years,” Stiglitz said during his speech at a forum on Strategies for Emerging Markets sponsored by the Bank of Venezuela. …

“Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez appears to have had success in bringing health and education to the people in the poor neighborhoods of Caracas, to those who previously saw few benefits of the countries oil wealth,” he said. …

“It is not only important to have sustainable growth,” Stiglitz continued during his speech, “but to ensure the best distribution of economic growth, for the benefit of all citizens.” …

However, Stiglitz claimed, developing nations must strike a balance between public and private control of the market.

Critical of “free market fundamentalists”, Stiglitz is the 3rd most influential economist in the world today and in 2011 he was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Like most of our current elite, he is an  overpaid fool.

hat-tip Tim Andrews