Jeffrey Sachs Quotes (66 Quotes)


    In Asia, a lot of successful economies that had been living on their own saving, decided to open up their financial markets to international capital in the early 1990s. So here were countries doing quite well, but they decided they'd borrow a bit more and do even better.

    The broader issue of the real role of the U.S., the foreign assistance aspect of that, who's going to pay for the security of a global economy

    A lot of the old apparatchiks came back in, and corruption really dramatically increased in '94'95, particularly around Yeltsin's re-election in 1996, when the government used corrupt practices to give money to business, part of which was returned to the campaign coffers, and helped pay for Yeltsin's re-election.

    I would hope that Malawi would pull together. Rather than having such an intense internal political battle there could be unity in the country politically so that these critical needs can be addressed effectively.

    I want the donors to think ahead, not just handle the immediate crisis,


    We had a booming stock market in 1929 and then went into the world's greatest depression. We have a booming stock market in 1999. Will the bubble somehow burst, and then we enter depression? Well, some things are not different.

    The haphazardness of life and death is absolutely shocking.

    For many parts of the world, the chasm that has to be crossed to get from where they were, whether it's a dictatorship, economic collapse, financial crisis or all of the above, to the other side, that is a working market economy and a functioning democracy, is extraordinarily difficult and requires help.

    Business often does a good job supporting communities the arts, universities, and scientific enterprises... But that philosophy has rarely reached poor countries. Even businesses that are enlightened in their home bases see Africa, Latin America, and parts of Asia as places to exploit natural resources or use cheap labor.

    An estimated 25 million Africans are infected with HIV. Of those, 3 (million) to 4 million have advanced disease. Of those, only about 10,000 wealthy people with HIV have access to these drugs.

    The volatility of international capital is obviously destabilizing markets today.

    Russia has gone through eight years of continuing economic pain.

    Roosevelt talked not only about Freedom from Fear, but also Freedom from Want.

    Let's start fresh with Russia on some real help and some real reform.

    If we continue this combination of high rhetoric and grossly insufficient action, I think the risks to (the United States ') own national security ... and the risk to global stability are very real.

    As of the late 1980s and early 1990s, a kind of professional consensus arose in Washington. It was called a consensus for the world, but how many people really believed all of it is an open question. A consensus came, at least within Washington, about how countries should change from non-market economies to market economies.

    If the whole world went into recession, all the major central banks could cut interest rates and expand the money supply.

    America's planned contribution to the global AIDS fund is around a sixth of what is needed in 2003, according to the fund itself.

    While the Bush administration is prepared to spend 100 billion to rid Iraq of WMD, it has been unwilling to spend more than 0.2 of that sum... this year on the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

    The truth of good economic doctoring is to know the general principles, and to really know the specifics. To understand the context, and also, to understand that an economy may need some tender loving care, not just the so-called hard truths, if it's going to get by.

    In my view, there is an urgent need to communicate with the public and help to explain where there is consensus, and where are there doubts about the issues of sustainable development.

    The Russian drama began at the end of 1991, when the Soviet Union mercifully ended. Russia and 14 other new countries emerged from the ruins of the Soviet Union. Every one of those 15 new states faced a profound historical, economic, financial, social and political challenge.

    Senior development specialists in the Treasury can be counted on one hand. America's government is not even aware of the gap between its commitments and action, because almost nobody in authority understands the actions that would be needed to meet the commitments.

    In the early 1990s, when a lot of the developing world opened up to international capital flows... they ended up in very good long-term projects, but projects that weren't going to pay off for five or 10 or 20 years.

    Countries like Malawi need, require and deserve the increased help of the international community, not only in the form of food aid but in the form of help to grow more food.

    We were proposing, in a sense, that the rest of the world be made safe for American ideas, as they adopted intellectual property rights that gave patent protection to our very innovative economy.

    The U.S. has a sound economy. It also has a cyclical economy. It also has stock market values right now that are hard to explain on historical norms. While it's always possible that everything can be based on the new economy, it's also quite possible that we're doing a little bit of exaggeration in just how wonderful things are.

    Unfortunately, the real focus in this country has not been on the rest of the world. It's been on our own issues and our own problems. Fair enough. But it means that our simple hopes that everything will just work out abroad aren't really coming to pass.

    Despite a decade of criticism and budget cuts, the specialised UN agencies have far more expertise and hands-on experience than any other organisations in the world.

    The idea that the UN system could provide real leadership on the great development challenges will strain credulity in some quarters.

    When is the last time anybody heard Vice President Dick Cheney even feign a word of concern for the world's poor

    The idea that UN commitments should be followed by action is indeed a radical one, especially for the United States, where wilful neglect of its own commitments is the rule.

    The essence of Africa's crisis is fundamentally its extreme poverty.

    We, being the Western world, wouldn't let Russia off the hook on debt. So there were demands on debt servicing in the early days until they ran out of reserves. There was no real aid program, just a fictional aid program.

    Trade is important, but I visit places that are so cut off from world markets that they aren't really part of the local economy, let alone the world economy.

    The Russian government not only acted corruptly, not only built up a new oligarchy of billionaires out of nothing, basically, but also gave away its most valuable financial assets-its ownership of the huge natural resource sector in Russia.

    We've waited 20 years, until we have 36 million infected in the world, before we've started to do something, ... It's shocking how we've let this go on. And costs of intervening today are vastly greater than they would have been in the past and they'll be greater if we continue to dither on this.

    The runs started in Thailand after the IMF intervened in such a dramatic way. Then the IMF came to Indonesia.

    We're fighting all the wrong wars in this country.

    When countries open up to trade, they generally benefit, because they can sell more, then they can buy more. And trade has two-way gain.

    Most companies that are interested in working in the poorest places don't know how to do it right now, ... don't know how we fit in the broader scheme. This provides a framework where all of this makes sense. The private initiative can get this process going. I am counting not only on financing, but technology and ideas. There's going to be a tremendous amount of learning about best approaches.


    we took on as a project helping a village in western Kenya. It was 5,000 hungry people beset with malaria and AIDS. And we said, 'let's apply the recommendations of the Millennium Project in this village with the support of a private donor, because government donors don't seem to do such practical things.' And we helped them get improved seeds and some fertilizer for the planting season. That's all. Very low cost. They produced four times more food this year than last year.

    It's not so unusual to run out of someone else's currency.

    The essential truth for developing countries is, if you try to live by yourself, you will cut yourself off from the amazing progress of world technology. You won't be able to purchase the goods that you need from abroad, because you're not exporting to the rest of the world. You have to be part of the world system.

    No serious work whatever is under way within the government to link annual budgetary allocations with the international development goals the United States has endorsed. For example, the Bush administration has failed to produce even one credible document spelling out America's role in a global-scale war against AIDS.

    Development can really work everywhere. But most of sub-Saharan Africa, the Andean region, and Central Asia face obstacles.

    It's time for other candidates to come forward that have experience in development.

    We give away tens of billions to Brazil, or to one place or another, without thinking. But in those days, to give even a tiny amount to Russia was viewed almost as anathema by many parts of our own society and our political leadership, whether it was the Bush administration or the Clinton administration.

    There's a lot of strength in the U.S., but there's a lot of froth also. The froth will blow off. We're going to have to face up to some realities that we're not fully facing up to right now.


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