Jeffrey D. Sachs's Blog, page 45

The ‘Wall Street Journal’ Parade of Climate Lies

That Rupert Murdoch governs over a criminal media empire has been made clear enough in the UK courts in recent years. That the Wall Street Journal op-ed pages, the latest victim of Murdoch’s lawless greed, are little more than naked propaganda is perhaps less appreciated. The Journal runs one absurd op-ed after another purporting to [...]

Why I am Endorsing Zephyr Teachout and Tim Wu

It is hard to exaggerate the shamelessness that passes for political behavior these days. Politicians sell out our democracy to the highest bidder, and trade away our public schools, clean air and water, and economic futures. Around the world I’ve seen repeatedly how greed and corruption put societies on the path of self-destruction. Unless we [...]

The G20, human health and sustainability:

What is your primary message as an economist interested in the relief of poverty about sustainability and its relation to both economics and human health? It is not possible to consider ending poverty in the midst of human-induced climate change. Even if poor countries, such as those in Africa, make some short-term progress in the [...]

Let the Middle East Govern Itself

NEW YORK – It is time for the United States and other powers to let the Middle East govern itself in line with national sovereignty and the United Nations Charter. As the US contemplates yet another round of military action in Iraq and intervention in Syria, it should recognize two basic truths. First, US interventions, [...]

Podcast interview with UN Dispatch on MDGs and early career as an economist

Hillary Clinton’s Foreign Policy Deception

It’s said that the best defense is a good offense. This strategy probably lies behind Hillary Clinton’s recent takedown of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy. After all, Clinton was a lead architect of that policy as Secretary of State, and the policies that she espoused until recently now lie in shambles. The most aggressive of [...]

Responding to Ebola

NEW YORK – The horrific Ebola epidemic in at least four West African countries (Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria) demands not only an emergency response to halt the outbreak; it also calls for re-thinking some basic assumptions of global public health. We live in an age of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases that can [...]

Sanctions can help break the spiral of war

In a world going mad with war, European and US sanctions against Russia stand out as sane and measured. They will not stop Russia’s assault on Ukraine in its tracks, but they will help Kiev to weather the Russian blows. And by answering violence with economics, they can help to rescue the world from the [...]

Speaking on the Sustainable Development Goals at Monash Sustainability Institute

The Waste of War

NEW YORK – Karl Marx famously wrote that history repeats itself, “the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.” Yet when we look around nowadays, we can’t help but wonder whether tragedy will be followed by yet more tragedy. Here we are, at the centenary of the outbreak of World War I, and we find [...]