# FT Economists' Forum: My Response to Stiglitz and Stern

*Published:* 2009-03-05
*Author:* Gernot Wagner

![Gernot Wagner's profile](https://blogs.edf.org/climate411/wp-content/blogs.dir/7/files/2008/09/gernot_wagner.jpg) This week, Joe Stiglitz and Nick Stern published an opinion piece in the *Financial Times* titled “[Obama’s Chance to Lead the Green Recovery](http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7c51644a-075b-11de-9294-000077b07658.html)“. They call for a “stable, strong” price for carbon, but do not say how that price should be set. I just posted a response in the *FT*‘s Economists’ Forum. Here’s how it begins:

> Joe Stiglitz and Nick Stern are exactly right to emphasize the role President Barack Obama can play in leading the green recovery. They are also right to calling for a “stable, strong carbon price.” But it matters how that price is set. In the United States in particular, the right environmental, political and economic answer is a cap-and-trade system.

Take a look at [the whole conversation](http://blogs.ft.com/economistsforum/2009/03/obama%E2%80%99s-chance-to-lead-the-green-recovery/). I also provided some more detail on the [greenness of economic stimuli](http://www.env-econ.net/2009/03/cap-as-the-next-stimulus.html) over at the Environmental Economics blog. Spoiler alert: China’s trumps the United States’ package 2:1.