In 2003, Libyan strongman Muammar Qaddafi agreed with the US and Europe to end his pursuit of nuclear and chemical weapons in order to normalize relations with the West. Eight years later, NATO abetted his overthrow and murder. Now we are asking North Korea to end its nuclear program as we once asked of Qaddafi. [...]
President Barack Obama’s budget this week makes clear the real political equilibrium in the US. The federal government is shrinking. Discretionary spending in the new Obama budget would shrink to 4.9 per cent of gross domestic product in 2023, compared with 7.9 per cent of GDP in 2008. Both parties have signed on to this [...]
A Conversation on America’s Future: Joe Scarborough and Jeffrey Sachs
THE 2009 economic stimulus package has come and gone. So, too, have the temporary payroll tax cuts of 2011-12. Most of the Bush-era tax cuts, in addition, have been made permanent. Yet the lasting effects of these policies have been meager. The economy is still sluggish. Unemployment remains high, especially for lower-skilled workers. Inequality of [...]
By Prabhjot Singh, Jeffrey Sachs During the past 10 years, community health workers (CHWs) have emerged as a focal point of international discussions of primary health-care systems. Although lay community-based health workers have been active for at least 60 years, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000 prompted new discussion of how these workers can help [...]
The surest bet on the future of energy is the need for low-carbon energy supplies. Around 80% of the world’s primary energy today is carbon based: coal, oil, and gas. We will need to shift to no- or low-carbon energy by mid-century. The big questions are how and when. Low-carbon primary energy means three options: [...]
The world is facing unrivalled environmental challenges with many of the pollution or emission indicators having already passed the “planetary boundary” the earth can withstand, according to Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. But one of the main speakers at the [...]
For thirty years, the Republican party has been trying to “starve the government beast” by rejecting the taxation needed to finance the public sector. The Democratic party has timorously followed along. Despite Barack Obama’s recent paeans to liberalism in his Inaugural and State of the Union addresses, the Republican agenda is very far advanced: The Age [...]
Let me be the first or among the first to wish you a very Happy Happiness Day! In case you didn’t know it, today is the first International Day of Happiness, launched by all 193 UN member states. Happiness Day doesn’t mean we’ve arrived at happiness, but it does mean that we’ve recognized that happiness [...]
Short video interview with CNN
