Stiglitz: Probabilities of a double dip recession "certainly have increased significantly"

During our interview in Paris on Sunday, Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz told Chris and me that the probabilities of a double dip recession "certainly have increased significantly."

But Stiglitz made an interesting point.  It doesn't really matter if we "officially" enter recession territory again or not - things are bad, especially in terms of jobs, and not improving, no matter what term we use to describe the current situation. So, to some degree, by saying "thank God we've avoided a double dip" (if in fact we do avoid one) we're ignoring the fact that things are still horrible and not getting better.

Stiglitz also pointed out that the economy needs to grow by 3% to 4% to get us out of the current "jobs deficit."  And that, he says, isn't going to happen any time soon - at most growth will be 1% this year.



See our earlier excerpt of the interview in which Stiglitz says the Obama administration and the Fed have demonstrated an inability to make economic judgments.