Nobel-prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz talks to me about the true cost of the war in Iraq, high oil prices, and the mortgage crisis

While attending the Symi Symposium in Greece last week, I was able to spend some time with Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel-prize-winning economist from Columbia University. Stiglitz not only won the Nobel prize in Economics a few years back, but he also served as the chair of President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers. Stiglitz is an amazing man. He kind of reminds you of your favorite college professor. The one who took the time to explain things to you, and who actually seemed to enjoy doing it. I can't say enough about the guy (and his wife, who was a real gem as well) - it was just a pleasure and honor to be able to sit down with someone like this.

So... I was able to pigeon-hole Stiglitz for about 25 minutes and interview him on a variety of topics. I've split the interview in to three portions.

1. The first deals with Stiglitz's new book, "The Three Trillion Dollar War." Stiglitz argues that the Bush administration lied to us about the true cost of the Iraq war, and then when all is said and done, it will be costing us around $3 trillion dollars - and that's being conservative. (9 minutes)

2. The second portion of the interview deals with the physical cost of the war on our troops, and then we delve into the issue of oil prices. A really fascinating discussion about whether or not OPEC can produce more oil, how the dollar is affecting the price of gas at home, and how speculators are impacting the market. (8 minutes)

3. And finally, in the third part of our interview we talk about how increased US domestic production of oil won't help lower oil prices, and about the mismanagement of the US mortgage crisis by the Bush administration. (5 minutes)

This is the first part of the interview, below. The other two parts you can watch via the links above. Part 1 is okay, but it's in parts 2 and 3 that Stiglitz really gets going and the interview takes off. Altogether it's probably 23 minutes or so of video. I highly recommend it. I learned a ton, and hope you will as well.