I am not sure Professor Stiglitz is a valid spokesman for the de-equalized.

Professor Joseph E. Stiglitz has written "The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future". 

Now, if Professor Stiglitz is so worried about inequality, as he should rightfully be, how come he does not care about one of the most important inequality drivers of our time, namely that of the capital requirements for banks based exclusively on the perceived risks of a borrower´s default, and where, of course, the “not-risky” are closely correlated to the haves, and the risky” to the not-haves? 

Professor Stiglitz chaired the Commission of Experts of the President of the United Nations General Assembly on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System, which presented its final report in September 2009. In it we find no objection to this odious regulatory discrimination. 

I mean how can one not object a system which allows banks to lend to “infallible sovereigns”, those already obtaining the best conditions, against no capital at all, and at the same time require the banks to hold 8 percent in capital when lending, at high rates and low sums, to a sovereign rated BB+ or below? 

I mean how can one not object a system which allows banks to lend to the “infallible corporate”, those rated AAA to AA”, those already obtaining the best conditions, against only 1.6 percent in capital, and at the same time require the banks to hold 8 percent in capital when lending, at high interest rates and low amounts, to a corporate rated BBB+ or below, or to a small business or an entrepreneur? 

Is Stiglitz unaware that banks already discriminate for perceived risks by means of interest rates, amounts lend and other term, and so that this regulatory discrimination, placed on top of that, can only guarantee that banks overdose on perceived risks? 

Has Stiglitz never read Mark Twain describing bankers as those who lend you the umbrella when the sun shines but want it back, hurriedly, when it looks like it is going to rain? 

Can Stiglitz not understand the nature of the current crisis where our banks got saddled with obese bank exposures to what was, ex ante, officially perceived as absolutely not risky… like lousy securities disguised as splendid triple-A’s, loans to Icelandic banks, loans by the Spanish banks to the real estate sector in Spain, loans to an “infallible” Greek government, and other similar; and anorexic exposures to the “risky”, the small businesses and entrepreneurs, those we most need our banks to finance? 

And, because of all this, I am sorry, but for the time being, I am not sure Professor Stiglitz is a truly valid spokesman for the de-equalized.