Stiglitz warns job-killing austerity measures hurt economies

Austerity measures "don't work" and prevent countries from creating jobs needed to generate economic growth, said Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. "Austerity is an experiment that has been tried before with the same results," Stiglitz said today in a speech in Copenhagen. Cutting budgets in low-growth cycles leads to higher unemployment and hampers recovery, he said. Greece, Ireland and Portugal are under pressure to push through austerity measures that have sparked anti-government protests and general strikes as the three euro members struggle to comply with the terms of their bailout programs. The budget cuts have failed to persuade most investors the countries will avoid a default, a Bloomberg Global Poll published today showed. Europe's leaders are gripped by "deficit fetishism," Stiglitz said. Austerity "doesn't work, it does not led to more efficient, faster growing economies," said Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University in New York who won the Nobel Prize for economics in 2001. The U.S. economic expansion will exceed European growth this year and the next, the European Commission in Brussels said today. U.S. gross domestic product will rise 2.6 percent this year and 2.7 percent in 2012, while the euro area will expand 1.6 percent in 2011 and 1.8 percent next year. The U.S. federal budget deficit is projected to reach $1.5 trillion, or 9.8 percent of gross domestic product, this year, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The 17- member euro region's deficit is forecast to be 4.3 percent of GDP this year, the European Commission forecasts. - BloombergBerger Paints Provides Scholarship tc~ the Arilchitecture Departrnent of Khu1na University Berger Paints Bangladesh Urnited signed an MOU with the Architecture discipline of Khulna University recently at the architecture department of Khulna University. Mohsin Habib Chowdhury, General Managei Sales & Marketing, and Gourl Shankar Roy, Head of Architecture Discipline, Khulna University, signed the MOU on behalf of their own organizations. Managing Director of Berger Paints, Rupali Chowdhury, and Vice Chancellor of Khulna University, Professor Dr. Md. Salfuddin Shah, graced the occasion. Under this MOU, Berger Paints Bangladesh UmIted will provide scholarship to the students of the architecture discipline of Khulna University. Besides Berger Will also sponsor the KUAD BERGER Remurce CArner where all the latest learning materials and resources of Architecture will be added. Managing Director of Berger Paints in her speech expressed the continuation of the scholarship program In future. Vice Chancellor of Khulna University also appreciated the Initiative of Berger Paints Bangladesh I Imited. Syed Abu Abed Saher, General Sales Manager Decorative and Professor Mohammad Fayek Uzzaman, Pro Vice Chancellor of Khulna University along with other High Officials from both the organizations were also present In the occasion.