29 September 2025
Bilbao Campus
The Nobel Prize in Economics (2001) Joseph Stiglitz opened the 2025 Bilbao Kultura Social Forumon 29 September at the University of Deusto, a meeting organised by the Fair Saturday Foundation with the support of the BBK Foundation, which brought together more than 400 people, including institutional representatives, academics, students and citizens. This talk was the first of the events in this forum, which, under the motto “(Im)Possible Futures”, brought together leading voices from various fields of knowledge until 1 October to reflect on the transformative role of culture and values in today’s society.
Also taking part was Lorena Fernández, head of Deusto’s Artificial Intelligence Committee, a key platform created at the University to coordinate the institution’s strategy on the impact of AI on education and knowledge, from an ethical and responsible perspective. In her talk on 1 October at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, she spoke on “De aquellos sesgos, estos algoritmos”. In this presentation, she was joined by AI expert Carmen Torrijos, who gave the talk ‘“IA para el bien social. ¿Cómo utilizarla?”
Exhaustion of the neoliberal model
In his speech, leading economist Joseph Stiglitz analysed the multiple interrelated crises the world is going through - climatic, democratic, social and economic - and underlined the exhaustion of the neoliberal model that has dominated the last decades. He argued that this system has not only failed to deliver on its promises of growth and shared prosperity, but has also concentrated the benefits on the elites and left the majority with stagnant wages, weakened services and increased social insecurity. After the industrial crisis, he recalled, governments failed to readjust workers and the market failed to readjust workers, which increased inequality and fuelled the rise of populist and authoritarian leaderships.
The Nobel Laureate in Economics noted that growth during the neoliberal era was slower than in the decades following World War II, and that the so-called “trickle-down economy” never worked. "Profits were not achieved through innovation or efficiency, but often by exploiting workers and the environment," he said. In his view, the system "was not sustainable": it increased monopolisation, eroded competition and favoured "short-sighted and selfish" behaviour that weakened the social fabric. "Without trust, capitalism cannot work," he warned.
Democracy in retreat and disinformation
At another point in the lecture, Joseph Stiglitz warned of “widespread evidence of democratic backsliding, especially in the United States,” including attacks on the press, freedom of expression, academia, and the rule of law itself. At the same time, he highlighted the growing inequality, political polarisation, and the deterioration of the information ecosystem.
"Tech giants and artificial intelligence are polluting the information ecosystem," he said, explaining that business models based on promoting outrage fuel disinformation and social division. On this point, he warned that “artificial intelligence steals the information of those who produce it, and without economic incentives, information products are increasingly poor (newspapers, researchers…), so technological advances are creating a worse information ecosystem, to the detriment of our democracy and economy”.
The Nobel laureate also underlined the seriousness of the attack on truth and knowledge. “The very concept of truth is under attack, because new fascisms do not like messages that come from science,” he stated, warning that Enlightenment values, the fundamental pillars on which democratic, social, and economic progress over the past centuries have been built, are being weakened.
The economist placed this context at a critical moment for the international system. He noted that the multilateral order, established after World War II with the support of the UN and international agreements, “is eroding, being replaced by the law of the jungle”. In particular, he warned that policies such as those promoted by Donald Trump “have shown that an agreement with the United States is not worth the paper it is written on” and argued that Europe must build its own defence capabilities rather than rely exclusively on Washington.
Rethinking economics and democracy
Faced with this panorama, the economist defended the need to rethink both the economy and democratic institutions, recovering cooperation, solidarity and humanist values. He proposed moving towards what he calls "the good society": a more sustainable, egalitarian and humane model, in which people have greater opportunities to develop their potential and where empathy and trust are the basis of coexistence.
In this context, he believes that "economic reform and political reform must go hand in hand". In his view, there is an urgent need to limit concentrated power, revitalise democracy with stronger institutions and strengthen collective action. "Selfish capitalism undermined human empathy and the willingness to cooperate. But the current regime is not inevitable: we still have human agency to decide how to structure our societies," he stressed, reclaiming the spirit of the Enlightenment as a framework for meeting the challenges of the 21st century.
Joseph Stiglitz closed his talk with a message of hope: “We are at a critical moment in history, in which all fundamental values are being put to the test. But there are alternatives. We can choose a fairer, more democratic and sustainable model.”
