03/10 STI down 2.01%, Asian markets take a battering

Asian markets tumbled amid concerns over China's slowing economy and the weak consumer spending in the United States amid a drop in incomes. Greece has also said it would fall short of its deficit targets. -- PHOTO: AFP

Asian markets tumbled amid concerns over China's slowing economy and the weak consumer spending in the United States amid a drop in incomes. Greece has also said it would fall short of its deficit targets.

Singapore shares closed lower on Monday, with the benchmark Straits Times Index at 2,621.40, down 2.01 per cent, or 53.76 points.

A total of 1.49 billion shares, valued at $1.43 billion, were traded. Losers outnumbered gainers 439 to 74.

Genting Singapore, one of two integrated resort (IR) operators in Singapore, saw its share price fall 3.89 per cent or $0.06 to $1.48. The IRs rely heavily on tourists from China.

03/10 Joseph Stiglitz: Austerity not the way to go for Europe

3 October 2011 Last updated at 23:01 GMT

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Professor at Columbia University

Joseph Stiglitz won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001 and is a former World Bank chief economist

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Global Economy

• Eurozone crisis explained
• Experts debate eurozone options
• Euro crisis originsWatch
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Most economists thought that when the euro was put together, it was an incomplete task. They'd taken out too many adjustment mechanisms and had not put anything in its place.

One of the things that makes the American common currency work across the country is we have a common fiscal authority and high migration - we're willing to allow North Dakota to become empty.

In Europe, there's no fiscal authority, migration is more difficult and most of the countries are not willing to let themselves become empty. So the framework for allowing for an effective common currency is not there.

Now you might be able to make up for the deficiencies in one part by strengthening another part, for instance by having a stronger fiscal authority. But they don't have that.