安倍総理大臣、ジョセフ・ユージン・スティグリッツ教授との会談

平成２５年３月２１日、安倍総理は総理大臣官邸で、コロンビア大学のジョセフ・ユージン・スティグリッツ教授による表敬を受け、次のように述べた。（「首相官邸」より）

「日本ではこうした政策は主流的な考えではなかったのですが、私がこういった主張をしている間に、教授から、支持するご発言をいただいたことは大変心強いかぎりでありました。」
最近のスティグリッツ教授の日本経済に関する発言を調べると、３／１７Bangkok Post にトゥラキット・バンティット大学での講演要旨が掲載されている。
その記事によれば、教授は全面的に安倍内閣の経済政策に賛同しているようには受け取れない。
安倍首相も教授も大人の対応をしたということでしょう。

以下に、Bangkok Post、首相官邸、産経ニュースの関連記事を掲げる。

大胆な金融緩和について。

"That budget austerity is necessary and sufficient for economic success is a bad idea that has stayed around after it was experimented with, and failed, in East Asia and Argentina. But the European Commission, the European Central Bank and Germany haven't learnt the lesson."
Japan needed a similar kind of change to revive its economy. The monetary stimulus championed by Shinzo Abe's' administration was unlikely to achieve its target of bolstering growth, he said.

日本は経済を活性化するために同様の変化を必要としていた。安倍内閣が主導する金融緩和は活発な成長を達成するという目標を達成できそうではない。

ここは記者が発言をどのようにまとめたのか分からないが、１の矢だけでなく２の矢、３の矢が必要だと述べたと理解しておこう。

金融緩和だけでは成長を達成できないことは次のようにも述べている。

Quantitative easing measures had not worked in stimulating the US economy, although they had prevented things from getting worse.

量的緩和は事態の悪化を防止したが、経済を活性化することは出来なかった。

次にTPPについては、教授はタイ国民に参加に反対することを表明せよと述べている。

Mr Stiglitz urged Thai civil society groups to protest if the government takes steps to join the US-sponsored Trans-Pacific Partnership accord because negotiations were taking place behind closed doors and corporate interests were at the table.

なぜなら交渉は密室の中で行われ、企業の利害がそこで論じられるからだ。

Bangkok Post
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/340910/economist-stiglitz-warns-not-to-expect-a-quick-global-recovery

Economist Stiglitz warns not to expect a quick global recovery
Published: 17 Mar 2013 at 00.00
Newspaper section: News
Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz believes the recovery of the badly hit economies of the United States and Europe will stretch into the next decade.

Joseph Stiglitz
Mr Stiglitz said the recovery is being distorted by the vested interests of political and business groups and the notion that budget cuts were needed in the US and the eurozone.
He told an economic conference hosted by Dhurakij Pandit University yesterday that there were lessons for Asian economies from the two regions which could help them to avoid the same situation.
The fight between the Democrats and the Republicans in the US House of Representatives had led to deep budget cuts at a time when the US needed fiscal spending the most, and it would delay key structural improvements that the US and Europe needed to create a genuine recovery from the crisis and make their economies capable of expanding at a rate that creates jobs.
He named education, health care and technology as necessary structural repairs for the US that would move the economy closer to the service sector.
Spain and Italy have plunged into a deep economic recession, he said, which was being made worse by Germany's adherence to a request for a reduction in their budget deficits.
"There is a man-made disaster in the EU and the US, unlike the tsunami in Japan. The way political and economic decisions have been made over a number of years has led to this outcome," the former economic adviser to the Clinton White House administration said.
"They know what are the economic solutions, but the key question is the political structure that enables them."
The 2008 world economic crisis had proved yet again his studies and the prevalent beliefs during the past 30 years that markets had failed to work perfectly and fairly on their own, as is reflected by the bleak outlook for jobs.
American democracy was being threatened by the lobbying of corporations over economic policies and there was less interest for the people to participate in politics. One of the most recent scandals involved drug companies wielding influence in American economic law to maintain the high prices of drugs, he said.
Mr Stiglitz urged Thai civil society groups to protest if the government takes steps to join the US-sponsored Trans-Pacific Partnership accord because negotiations were taking place behind closed doors and corporate interests were at the table.
Mr Stiglitz said the US will grow 2% on average over the next few years, but the expansion would be too low to create enough jobs. Such a scenario for growth is optomistic considering the difficulty of US politicians to hammer out policies to increase fiscal spending and structural adjustment policies.
"If economic growth is under three or four percent you don't have new net job creation and the only way you can do it is to have low productivity growth, which isn't a good solution. So one sees growth over three per cent which will reduce joblessness significantly in the immediate future," he said.
Six out of 10 US citizens who want full-time jobs cannot get them. The US's nascent positive indicators such as the equities rally reflect a near-zero interest rate rather than genuine improvement in the economy.
Markets will still have confidence in holding dollar-denominated assets, even if the US administration creates more debt and increases borrowing to invest, he said.
"Thailand is not as bad as the US, but a large fraction of the population cannot get jobs or the jobs that they want," Mr Stiglitz said.
He said inequalities in America had grown over the past four decades as shown by stagnant middle class incomes even during the economic boom.
"The Obama administration does not directly spell out policies to reduce inequality, but it has a middle-class policy," he said.
"Before the 2008 crisis, US consumers spent 110 percent of their income. Now it has decreased to 80 percent, but it couldn't and shouldn't return to the same level. The gap is needed to be filled by fiscal spending."
Quantitative easing measures had not worked in stimulating the US economy, although they had prevented things from getting worse.
"That budget austerity is necessary and sufficient for economic success is a bad idea that has stayed around after it was experimented with, and failed, in East Asia and Argentina. But the European Commission, the European Central Bank and Germany haven't learnt the lesson."
Japan needed a similar kind of change to revive its economy. The monetary stimulus championed by Shinzo Abe's' administration was unlikely to achieve its target of bolstering growth, he said.
Mr Stiglitz also raised the irony of marked improvement in the productivity of the US farm sector which had failed to create an economic sucess platform and raise the standard of living.
"We are a victim of our own success. As a result of the increase in productivity over a long period of time, we need fewer people to produce food," he said.
The US has had an enormous productivity increase in its manufacturing sector and that was outpacing the increase in demand, causing a shortfall in jobs.
"Our global share of employment is going down due to changes in comparative advantages brought about by globalisation. So the EU and the EU need to restructure their labour mobility," he said.
Mr Stiglitz also criticised the reliance on innovations to increase productivity.
He said this had played a key role in the 2008 economic downturn.

首相官邸
http://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/96_abe/actions/201303/21hyoukei.html

平成２５年３月２１日、安倍総理は総理大臣官邸で、コロンビア大学のジョセフ・ユージン・スティグリッツ教授による表敬を受けました。
　安倍総理はあいさつの中で、次のように述べました。
　「今、我々は、大胆な金融緩和政策と機動的な財政政策、成長戦略、この３つの次元の違う政策を進めていくによって、デフレ脱却を目指しているところであります。
　日本ではこうした政策は主流的な考えではなかったのですが、私がこういった主張をしている間に、教授から、支持するご発言をいただいたことは大変心強いかぎりでありました。
　浜田教授には、政府のアドバイザーとして助けていただいているわけでありますが、私がこの政策を申し上げるに際しましても、浜田教授からアドバイスをいただいたわけでありますが、その間、スティグリッツ先生の学説もお伺いしました。
　我々の課題は、多くの人たちが、経済成長の果実を享受できるような状況を作っていくことであります。」

産経ニュース
http://sankei.jp.msn.com/economy/news/130321/fnc13032119200023-n1.htm
ノーベル経済学賞のスティグリッツ教授が安倍首相らと会談　アベノミクスを「支持」
2013.3.21 19:18

コロンビア大教授のスティグリッツ教授（左）と会談する安倍晋三首相。右端は浜田宏一内閣官房参与＝２１日午前、首相官邸（酒巻俊介撮影）
　ノーベル経済学賞受賞者のジョセフ・スティグリッツ米コロンビア大学教授は２１日、安倍晋三首相、甘利明経済再生相とそれぞれ会談した。会談を終えたスティグリッツ教授は記者団に「安倍政権の景気刺激策は、短期的な（景気浮揚といった）課題だけでなく、同時に、長期的な課題の解決にもつながることを指摘した」と語り、安倍政権の経済政策「アベノミクス」を支持した。
　また、１千兆円近い国・地方の債務を抱えるなど財政が厳しい状態にあることについても「日本はまだまだ経済のポテンシャルがある。経済を成長させれば債務を減らすことができる。そのためにもデフレの脱却がまず第１だ」と語った。
　安倍首相は、「教授から支持する発言をもらって心強い」と語った。甘利氏との会談は１５分の予定だったが、５０分超となるなど、活発な意見交換となった。
　双方の会談には内閣官房参与の浜田宏一・米エール大学名誉教授も同席した。