Talk:Jeffrey Sachs

JEFFERY SACHS IS SEXY! I LOVE HIM SOS SOS SOS SOS SO MUCH! CALL ME BAY BAY!

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WikiProject Biography Assessment

The article may be improved by following the WikiProject Biography 11 easy steps to producing at least a B article. -- Yamara 02:00, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

HIID, etc.

Was Jeffrey Sachs a Time Magazine Person of the Year? --

This is Jeffrey D. Sachs, not to be confused with a supposed former boyfriend of a Latin-American actress. See summary when that mistake was removed. --Jerzy(t) 04:34, 2004 Sep 3 (UTC)

En Bolivia la tesis de Jeffrey Sachs no ha funcionado a pesar de que él ha estado asesorando a los gobiernos bolivianos desde 1985 hasta el 2004. Esto demuestra que probablemente su teoria esté equivocada, tal como lo ha demostrado el premio Nobel de Economia, Joe Stiglitz. Este último menciona que las políticas al estilo Sachs y el FMI, solo sirven para hacer más millonarios a los ricos de los países pobres y a exportar sus capitales a cuentas bancarias en los países del primer mundo. Vale la pena mencionar que su teoría del "choque económico" para ajustes coyunturales, en el caso boliviano funcionó como disminución drástica de la hiperinflación que ese país sufría en 1985. Pero posteriormente sus "soluciones" que habían sido fielmente seguidas por Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, uno de los admiradores de Sachs, logró que la industria textil boliviana se redujese casi en su totalidad, que los agricultores de papa, se quedasen sin cultivos, que la economía boliviana quedase ampliamente expuesta a la evolución del exterior y así por delante.

I question the appropriateness of this paragraph:

Sachs is also tainted by scandal from his time as director of Harvard’s Institute for International Development (HIID). Several trails resulted from allegations of insider trading and no-bid government contracts, although Sachs himself was not the direct target. In the midst of the scandal Sachs fired fellow Harvard economist Andrei Schliefer whose wife was accused of insider trading based on knowledge derived from HIID consulting contracts with Russia. While the details remain murky, some suggest that the hostility Sachs faces is the result of the gross mismanagement of HIID and subsequent conflict within Harvard.

Whether someone is "tainted" is a matter of opinion rather than fact, so the statement isn't NPOV. Whether HIID was grossly mismanaged is also a matter of opinion, albeit one shared by many. As far as I know (and I don't claim to be an expert on the matter) the only people who see Sachs as being tainted by the HIID scandals are those who believe in guilt by association; I don't think there is any evidence that Sachs did anything improper. This paragraph also cites "some" as authority for the claim that hostility toward Sachs (and the article doesn't even say there is such hostility) stems from the HIID problems. On top of all that, the paragraph's author misspelled "trials" as "trails". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 00.00.00.00 (talk • contribs) 00:00, 00 Jan 0000 (UTC)

Dunno when the above was written, but I've added HIIG material back in. It's not "guilt by association"; Schleifer's activities continued during Sachs' directorship, resulting in the boat hitting the reefs on Sachs' watch, Sachs bailing ship (in two stages), etc. And Schleifer claimed it was Sachs' responsibility... Not saying I agree with Schleifer, but Sachs' had, for over a year, assumed responsibility for HIID oversight that didn't get performed. Andyvphil 03:22, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

Comment made in Criticism section

"(which the UN subsequently blocked from public access)" - I think this statement should be deleted or edited because it is misleading. It seems to imply that that the UN statistics office is trying to hide the information.

1. It is also blocked from private access as well(within the organization). 2. This data can be found elsewhere within the organization and even from other companies in the private sector or NGOs as well.

I hate to nit pick, but that just isn't an issue- I will try and see if I can find the data that supposedly disappeared and try to link to it.

195.8.3.165 15:27, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

Still haven't found it? If they didn't hide it why didn't you find it? Andyvphil 08:26, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

This article omits the fact that Sachs theories about the underlying and natural existence of the market in all societies. When he was part of the advisors brought in to establish a new socio-economic system in post-soviet Russia (and most of Eastern Europe), he recommended a "shock therapy" by completely deregulating the market overnight as well as privatising large state industries and infrastructures creating a 'spontaneous order'. It quickly became apparent that the neo-liberal idea that the market is a natural aspect of human organisation was wrong. The economic downfall and the long-lasting consequences of Sachs' inspired policies in Russia and Eastern Europe have been disasterous. Sachs' utopian ideal is ridiculous, and is also being repeated in Iraq: the destruction of all pre-existing civil society in order to create a 'spontaneous order' and the result is and will remain, chaos. --Oinj 20:54, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Although this last statment is blatantly an opinion on the most part alot of academic literature on the outcomes of his work could be included in the criticism section. Whether 'shock therapy' will work in the long term is a matter of opinion, its instant effects (massive inflation, oligarchs etc.) aren't. - louis

While Oinj's remarks are not encyclopedic, (neither are mine ;-) ) they point to the need for more criticism of the "shock therapy" Sachs, as louis says. (There is and was plenty from the left, e.g. Edward S. Herman in Z magazine and elsewhere. and Russia experts at least) An interesting source is Sachs himself. Sorry to not provide references or any help on the article, but recent things he has said to distance himself from shock therapy and its often catastrophic consequences in Russia and Latin America seem to me to provide a fascinatingly, umm, novel history of the period from the undisputed leader of the shock therapists. John Z 07:22, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

Sachs "savaged" by Easterly?

"While a hero to many, some economists also view Jeff Sachs’ proposals as dangerously naive. One of his strongest critics is New York University (NYU) Professor of Economics William Easterly who savaged End of Poverty in his review for the Washington Post."

Having just now followed the link to the review, I think saying "dangerously naive" and particularly "savaged" are exaggerations. The review is respectful - at times very positive - and hardly "savage". The word "danger" does appear, but not in a way you'd expect, given the sentence in Wikipedia.

To illustrate, let me quote the first and the final two paragraphs of the review, which I think fairly well capture the tone of the review:

"Jeffrey D. Sachs's guided tour to the poorest regions of the Earth is enthralling and maddening at the same time -- enthralling, because his eloquence and compassion make you care about some very desperate people; maddening, because he offers solutions that range all the way from practical to absurd. It's a shame that Sachs's prescriptions are unconvincing because he is resoundingly right about the tragedy of world poverty. As he puts it, newspapers should (but don't) report every morning, "More than 20,000 people perished yesterday of extreme poverty..."

"...Perhaps we can excuse these allegedly easy-to-achieve dreams as the tactics of a fundraiser for the poor -- someone who's out to galvanize public opinion to back dramatically higher aid abroad. Sachs was born to play the role of fundraiser. And it's easier to feel good about his sometimes simplistic sales pitch for foreign aid if it leads to spending more dollars on desperately poor people, as opposed to, say, wasteful weapons systems."

"The danger is that when the utopian dreams fail (as they will again), the rich-country public will get even more disillusioned about foreign aid. Sachs rightly notes that we need not worry whether the pathetic amount of current U.S. foreign aid -- little more than a 10th of a penny for every dollar of U.S. income -- is wasted. Foreign aid's prospects will brighten only if aid agencies become more accountable for results, and demonstrate to the public that some piecemeal interventions improve the lives of desperate people. So yes, do read Sachs's eloquent descriptions of poverty and his compelling ethical case for the rich to help the poor. Just say no to the Big Plan."

Now, is that "savage"?

217.11.197.10

So you'd like...

"While a hero to many, some economists also view Jeff Sachs’ proposals as "simplistic". One of his strongest critics is New York University (NYU) Professor of Economics William Easterly who criticized End of Poverty as "unconvincing" and "absurd" in his review for the Washington Post."?

Andyvphil 08:36, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

End of poverty & economics courses

"Sachs book, The End of Poverty, is used in many economics courses. [citation needed]" Don't know about a citation, but it is a core reading on the reading list of the University of York's Developmental Economics course, which I'm taking this semester. - Saluton 02:35, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

critics/criticisms

i would suggest referencing author Naomi Klein as a critic of Sachs' work, she strongly criticises his views on sweatshops in her book 'no logo', quoting him as saying "my concern is not that there are too many sweatshops but that there are too few...those are precisely the sort of jobs that were the stepping stones for singapore and hong kong and those are the sort of jobs that have to come to africa to get them out of back-breaking rural poverty"- her criticism of these views is that, "development built on starvation wages, far from kickstarting a steady improvement in conditions, has proved to be a case of one step forward, three steps back", and that (if i interpret the book correctly) sweatshops opening up can cause food shortages as the promise of factory work lures people from farming. further (as i understand chapter 9 of the book) she claims that human rights abuses in factories and sucessful methods to subvert minimum wage laws and national tax policy in fact inhibit sustainable development.

can anyone provide clarification here- im not sure whether this would be relevant or if i have fully understood either Sachs' or Klein's point of view

78.146.209.39 13:42, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

criticism: quantify

In the 'Criticism' section, the phrase "massively scaled-up foreign aid" is used (and later, "large", etc.) Presumably (?) this refers to the earlier statement "from the $65 billion level of 2002 to $195 billion a year by 2015". A typical reader has absolutely no sense of what is or is not a "large" number when they see values in the billions. "Large" compared to what? (Other countries aid? Emergency aid/intervention? Farm subsidies? Per-capita soda consumption?) Is there a good reference page to link to here with such information? In order to have any meaning at all to a reader, numbers in the billions need to be compared to something else. (Preferably normalized per-capita, inflation adjusted, etc.) DKEdwards 21:16, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

what about "double" the foreign aid payements? I think he claims that by himself, indeed because it is more catchy...