You can unclench your stomach. Technological advancement and progress address so-called externalities — and do so on a level no amount of government regulation or intervention could ever approach. The truth is that it’s not even a contest, and I am prepared to prove this to you. Also, properly codified, strictly defined, and rigorously enforced tort laws have long been known to deal well with externalities, as Peruvian economist Hernando De Soto (among others) has so articulately shown, and Stiglitz’s tendentiousness is so embarrassingly predictable that it’s now nothing more than cliche. Stiglitz is wrong.

Here are a few Nobel laureates in economics who agree with me, and who will now relax your stomach — the first of whom was once Stiglitz’s teacher:

Robert Solow
James M Buchanan
George Joseph Stigler
Robert Lucas
Ronald Harry Coase
Robert Fogel