Stiglitz Says Europe May Face Same Lost Half-Decade as Japan

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said the European Union may face a “lost half-decade” similar to that experienced by Japan as governments implement budget cuts that may undermine the economic recovery.

“In Japan -- where they tried to balance the budget too early -- in 1997 and 1998, Japan went in for another lost half-decade,” Stiglitz said in an interview with Tom Keene on Bloomberg Radio’s “Surveillance” in New York today. “Europe is really facing exactly the same kind of risk.”