Aviva Gabriel

“With higher saving and investment rates, both public and private, directed towards productive capital, the United States could overcome secular stagnation.”
― Jeffrey D. Sachs, Building the New American Economy: Smart, Fair, & Sustainable

“The scale of U.S. military operations is remarkable. The U.S. Department of Defense has (as of a 2014 inventory) 4,855 military facilities, of which 4,154 are in the United States; 114 are in overseas U.S. territories; and 587 are in forty-two foreign countries and foreign territories in all regions of the world.2 Not counted in this list are the secret facilities of the U.S. intelligence agencies. The cost of running these military operations and the wars they support is extraordinary, around $900 billion per year, or 5 percent of U.S. national income, when one adds the budgets of the Pentagon, the intelligence agencies, homeland security, nuclear weapons programs in the Department of Energy, and veterans’ benefits. The $900 billion in annual spending is roughly one-quarter of all federal government outlays.”
― Jeffrey D. Sachs, Building the New American Economy: Smart, Fair, & Sustainable

“This is an age of impunity, a time when the rich and powerful get away with their misdeeds, and are even lauded for them in some quarters.”
― Jeffrey D. Sachs, Building the New American Economy: Smart, Fair, & Sustainable

“There is a major economic difference, however, between now and 1991, much less 1950. At the start of the Cold War in 1950, the United States produced around 27 percent of world output. As of 1991, when the Cheney-Wolfowitz dreams of U.S. dominance were taking shape, that figure was around 22 percent. By now, according to IMF estimates, the U.S. share is 16 percent, while China has surpassed the United States at 18 percent.6 By 2021, according to IMF projections, the United States will produce 15 percent of global output compared with China’s 20 percent.”
― Jeffrey D. Sachs, Building the New American Economy: Smart, Fair, & Sustainable