Stiglitz Says Chances For Robust US Economic Rebound "Very Very Weak"

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Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz gave a very grim assessment of the chances for a robust US economic rebound Thursday, saying the chances for such a rebound are "very very weak."

Speaking to reporters at a roundtable held at Columbia University, Stiglitz said, "The prospects of a robust recovery are very, very weak."

He added that he feels the US economy could be faced with low growth over a long period of time. In a worst-case scenario, Stiglitz said the US could even suffer a "double-dip" recession, where any recovery the US makes won't be sustained.

"It is not possible to predict whether we have a malaise or a W (shaped growth pattern)," Stiglitz said. "But there is a significant chance of a W."

Stiglitz did note, however, that he didn't feel the "second dip is going to be as bad as the first dip." Rather, he feels the US could undergo a pattern where it experiences low growth, followed by contraction.

He further pointed out that it is difficult to forecast the exact direction of the economy, as "we really are in a different world" from the 1980s, when the US last underwent such a severe recession.

Stiglitz won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001. He is currently a professor at Columbia University.

On Friday, the Labor Department released its jobs report for August, which showed that non-farm payroll employment fell by 216,000 for the month. This compares to the 230,000 that analysts had expected and the revised 276,000 from last month. The unemployment rate rose from 9.4% in July to 9.7% in August.

Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz gave a very grim assessment of the chances for a robust US economic rebound Thursday, saying the chances for such a rebound are "very very weak." Speaking to reporters at a roundtable held at Columbia University, Stiglitz said, "The prospects of a robust recovery are very, very weak." (Market News Provided by RTTNews)