At Columbia University, which is located just blocks from Harlem in Manhattan’s West Side, wealth and poverty are closer together than they are in many places in New York City. This is where American economist and 2001 Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz works as a professor. The Gary, Indiana native has spent years examining social inequality. His first personal experience with the issue came when, as a young boy, he asked why his nanny wasn’t caring for her own children. Later, as the World Bank’s chief economist, he studied the phenomenon on a global level. In June, he published a book on the topic entitled “The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future,” which has just been released in German as well. In a SPIEGEL interview, Stiglitz discusses how wealth disparity is dividing America and how Europe can best overcome the euro crisis.
