Earth Institute News Archive
posted 10/14/04
Jeffrey D. Sachs: Economic
Policy Priorities for the Next Administration
EI Director speaks Monday, November
15, 2004, 6:00– 8:00 pm
“The undoing of American foreign policy is captured in the budget numbers. Long gone are the Marshall Plan times, when we dedicated several percent of our gross domestic product to European reconstruction. The United States will spend about $450 billion this year on the military but only $15 billion on official development assistance. The 30-to-1 ratio is mirrored by a similar imbalance in our thinking. Our military expertise is undoubted. Our ability to understand what exists before and after wars in low-income countries is nearly nonexistent…In the case of a superpower, ignorance is not bliss; it is a threat to Americans and to humanity.” – Jeffrey Sachs in a New York Times Op-ed, June 5, 2004
Long before being named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine earlier this year, Jeffrey Sachs was spreading the message that we have the science, technology, and wealth to end extreme poverty, and that the cost of doing so is easily within the means of the world’s rich countries. Sachs is internationally renowned for advising governments in Latin America, Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Asia, and Africa on economic reforms and for his work with international agencies to promote poverty reduction, disease control, and debt reduction of poor countries.
In this talk, Sachs will focus on where the next administration should aim the United States’ resources to make a safer, more prosperous and sustainable world. Jeffrey D. Sachs is the Director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University. He is also Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on a group of poverty reduction initiatives called the Millennium Development Goals.
WHAT: Economic Policy Priorities for the Next Administration, a talk by Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director, The Earth Institute at Columbia University
WHEN: Monday, November 15, 2004, 6:00– 8:00 pm
WHERE: The Columbia Club of New York, 15 W. 43rd Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues), James Madison Room
A 6:00pm reception will precede the 6:30pm lecture. Reservations for the reception and lecture are required. Please RSVP by November 10 to events@ei.columbia.edu.
The Earth Institute at Columbia University is the world’s leading academic center for the integrated study of Earth, its environment, and society. The Global Exchange lecture series is presented to inform audiences beyond the Columbia community of Earth Institute research and initiatives to mobilize science and technology to advance sustainable development, while placing special emphasis on the needs of the world’s poor.