Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz warned of a lost decade for America and dire consequences for a generation, in an interview with The Take Away.

Stiglitz pointed out that young workers face record medical bills for their parents, while paying record student loans, and they are entering a dismal job market:

"People with different skills, different background, different education face very different opportunities. If you're one of the very top... your future prospects are very good. If you've gone to one of those for-profit private schools, profit making schools, your future is bleak. The statistics say the likelihood that you will get a job, for which you paid a heavy tuition, is very low. And because of our laws, even if you went into bankruptcy you'll never get rid of those student loans. So they have a lifetime filled with debt, with no future prospects....

Parents used to pay for college education. The house was the piggy bank from which they withdrew. Now 25% of all homes are under water. That piggy bank is empty...

We used to call ourselves the land of opportunity. A country where someone could easily go from the bottom to the middle and the middle to the top. Everybody had some sense of equality of opportunity. Now, that's gone.

Nouriel Roubini agreed, tweeting a link to this interview with a comment about "Japanese stagnation."

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