Jeffrey Sachs
Director, The Earth Institute
Jeffrey Sachs is is an American economist and co-founder and chief strategist of Millennium Promise Alliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending extreme poverty and hunger. He is also the former director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, where he holds the title of University Professor, the highest rank that Columbia bestows on its faculty.

Coronavirus: The economics of contagious disease
How should we think about the tension between opening the economy back up and preserving public health?
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When America polices the world, everybody loses
America treats the world like a board game. That's a problem.
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6 min
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Dear Jeff Bezos, what are you going to do with all that money?
Economist Jeffrey Sachs discusses how the megarich can help millions of children by donating 1 percent of their wealth.
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7 min
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America’s Next Moonshot: Cut Poverty 50% by 2030
In the summer of 1969, America did the extraordinary. Let’s do it again.
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3 min
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A Columbia Professor Grades Trump’s Economic Policy
Jeffrey Sachs, from the Rust Belt himself, shares his thoughts on Trump's economic plans and shares some red flags to watch for as new policy proposals surface.
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5 min
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Can Universal Basic Income Fix America’s Inequality?
Can't the U.S. be a little more like Scandinavia in its ethos? Fixing inequality in America will take more than economic reform, it will also need a cultural shift.
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5 min
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Responding to Ebola
NEW YORK – The horrific Ebola epidemic in at least four West African countries (Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria) demands not only an emergency response to halt the outbreak; […]
The Waste of War
NEW YORK – Karl Marx famously wrote that history repeats itself, “the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.” Yet when we look around nowadays, we can’t help […]
The Limits of Climate Negotiations
NEW YORK – If the world is to solve the climate-change crisis, we will need a new approach. Currently, the major powers view climate change as a negotiation over who […]
Why Bill Gates Gets It Wrong
NEW YORK – In his review of Nina Munk’s error-filled and out-of-date book, Bill Gates oddly abandons the rigorous approach to measurement and evaluation that defines his foundation’s invaluable work. […]
Jeffrey Sachs on the Power of Solar Energy
The deserts of the world could provide enough electricity for vast populous regions of the world and do it in a clean and sustainable way—at least until the sun explodes […]
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What do you tell young people who want to act against global poverty?
Sachs encourages students to go abroad and see life as it is lived for the poor up close.
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1 min
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What’s the role of the UN?
The UN is much maligned, but vital for creating global agreements, Sachs says.
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1 min
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What’s your advice to the next administration?
Sachs recommends a department for international sustainable development.
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2 min
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How can we better fight global poverty?
We need a mix of government, private and voluntary sectors, Sachs says.
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