Sunday, May 11, 2008

Jeffrey Sachs on Economics for a Crowded Planet

Progressive video by Sachs who gives a rundown on his newest book. Don't despair, there is hope.

1 to almost 2$Billion/day is spent on the Pentagon by the out of control US government in its profit -taking, and paranoid war against 'terror' money laundering to the military industrial complex campaign.

Only 3$Billion/year is spent on energy research.

Where are the Math geniuses?

Its not that we don't have the means to turn the direction the world is heading in...

We simply enjoy a very corrupt way of looking at things...

And this must change...

2 comments:

Amy Anderson said...

John,

Read your comment this morning on carbon tax and the insanity of our ed system. I just finished reading "The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein. There are several chapters where she takes on Jeffrey Sachs for his role in instituting neoliberal economic policies, notably in Poland, Bolivia and Russia. It really made me take a second look at this man, who has re-cast himself as somewhat of a renegade in recent years. Check it out and keep the rants coming!
A.

John Ackerson said...

Thanks Amy for letting me rant on your site!

I think you're right about Sachs. Perhaps he has changed his stripes as you say.

Caught Naomi Klein's interview in Macleans mag a while back, but not her book.

However, I just discovered two BBC documentaries - one called 'The Trap', and the other 'The Power of Nightmares' both available on Youtube.

These are actually must see docs if you haven't already. Sachs is briefly seen in 'The Power...' as part of an American economics thinktank group that tragically advises Gorbachev to allow the free market to sort things out immediately after the fall of the Soviet Union.

This plan appears to have been fairly thoughtless as it obviously put too much pressure onto an already unstable system; - too sudden of a halt of all former Soviet subsidies, and many people became very desperate as to where their next meal was suddenly, going to come from...

I'll try and find time to read her book.