Jeffrey D. Sachs's Blog, page 28

Donald Trump’s dangerous China illusions

Today’s China offers a rude awakening for Americans who believe that the United States and the United States alone should dominate world power. Donald Trump seems to count himself among these neoconservatives, and China is their deepest phobia today. Trump is following a game plan that has characterized US “grand strategy” against major rivals dating [...]

Why Millennials Will Reject Trump

The key political divide in the United States is not between parties or states; it is between generations. The millennial generation (those aged 18-35) voted heavily against Donald Trump and will form the backbone of resistance to his policies. Older Americans are divided, but Trump’s base lies among those above the age of 45. On [...]

The balance sheet on ‘America First’

President Donald Trump believes an “America First” foreign policy would save Americans income and jobs and would help rebuild the country. Putting aside the moral and diplomatic dangers in Trump’s brazen assertion of American self-interest above global well-being, there is one economic truth in Trump’s ideas but several dangerous myths. The truth lies in military [...]

The shifting global landscape

In “The Wealth of Nations,” published in 1776, Adam Smith described the early events of globalization that commenced with Christopher Columbus’s discovery of the sea route from Europe to the Americas in 1492, and Vasco da Gama’s voyage from Europe to India in 1498. “The discovery of America, and that of a passage to the [...]

Jeff Sachs on Business Insider: Politics

Jeff Sachs’ and EDF on Trump’s EPA pick

US foreign policy — from primacy to global problem solving

Not for decades has American foreign policy been as uncertain and contested as it is today. At the start of the Trump administration, the challenges of foreign policy are of fundamental significance for US national security, and for global peace and prosperity. Today I’m inaugurating a new weekly series on America and the world that [...]

Learning to Love a Multipolar World

NEW YORK – American foreign policy is at a crossroads. The United States has been an expanding power since its start in 1789. It battled its way across North America in the nineteenth century and gained global dominance in the second half of the twentieth. But now, facing China’s rise, India’s dynamism, Africa’s soaring populations [...]

“Economics for the Common Good” at the conference “Subjective well-being over the life course: Evidence and policy implications”

Restoring civic virtue in America

The direst threat American society faces today is the collapse of civic virtue. By that, I mean the honesty and trust that enables the country to function as a decent, forward-looking, optimistic nation. The defining characteristic of the 2016 Presidential election is that neither candidate was trusted. The defining characteristic of American society today is [...]