Jeffrey D. Sachs's Blog, page 10

Scott Pruitt is the face of America’s big problem

(CNN) The federal government’s top ethics official has asked the Environmental Protection Agency to take “appropriate actions to address any violations” rising from the behavior of the agency’s administrator, Scott Pruitt.  Read the full article on CNN.

Conference on Ethics & AI: Agency & Empowerment – Carnegie Mellon

Computational technologies have provided many tools and opportunities to increase people’s sense of empowerment, and their personal ability to shape their lives. At the same time, these technologies can significantly disrupt the workforce, thereby reducing people’s options and ability to live their lives as they wish. This session will focus on the impacts, opportunities of [...]

Italian Politics and Europe’s Future

Italy – which stands at the border between Europe’s prosperous north and crisis-ridden south, and between an open Europe and one seized by atavistic nationalism – will play a pivotal role in determining whether the EU survives long enough to reform itself. The coalition government that emerges will prove crucial. Read the full article on Project [...]

Trump Vs. the Machine: White House in Shambles Over Syria Withdrawal Promise

For a second time in a week, President Trump has said it’s time for the US to withdraw from Syria; however, US UN envoy Nikki Haley and members of the president’s own national security team are trying to talk him out of it. Read the full article here.

The Happy Canadian: Jeffrey Sachs on Canada’s (and the U.S.’s) happiness ranking

Canada is the seventh happiest place in the world, according to an annual UN report and one if its co-authors, Jeffrey Sachs, says the ranking is good news for Canada. “People in Canada are happy and Canada is one of the happiest places in the world and I understand why,” Sachs told iPolitics in an [...]

Trump is right about Syria: It’s time to leave

Published in The Boston Globe. President Trump recently suggested that the United States should come out of Syria “very soon.” Leading voices of the foreign policy establishment — in the Pentagon, State Department, Congress, and the media — pushed back, calling for the United States to stay in Syria. Trump quickly acquiesced. Trump was right (yes, a [...]

Nordic Countries Continue To Rank High In Happiness, While America Falls

Finland, Norway, and Denmark were recently ranked the world’s three happiest countries. This may not come as a surprise, since they’ve been dancing around at the top of the list for a while now, along with Switzerland. Meanwhile, America fell to 18th on this list by the World Happiness Report. While it isn’t a terrible ranking, the decline is noteworthy. For a country whose [...]

China’s Bold Energy Vision

China’s proposed Global Energy Interconnection – based on renewables, ultra-high-voltage transmission, and an AI-powered smart grid – represents the boldest global initiative by any government to achieve the goals of the Paris climate agreement. It is a strategy fit for the scale of the most important challenge the world faces today. Read the full article [...]

University of Antwerp – Honorary Degree for General Merit

Jeffrey Sachs: US should not blame its domestic income gap on other countries

Governments should insist on following WTO rules and the US should not blame its domestic income gap on other countries, according to Jeffrey Sachs, a Columbia professor, economist, and special adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General.