WEALTH GAP: Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, says the growing gap between wealthy Americans and everyone else is at the root of many problems for the U.S. economy.

A HARDER SLOG: Climbing out of poverty is harder in the U.S. versus other countries such as Britain and Canada, Stiglitz says. Stiglitz notes that only 8 percent of students in the most selective colleges in the U.S. come from the bottom half of the income scale.

"RENT-SEEKING": "Some people get an income from working, and some people get an income just because they own a resource," Stiglitz says. "Their income isn't the result of effort. They're getting a larger share of the pie instead of making the pie bigger. In fact, they're making it smaller."