Sachs Jeffrey - Jeffrey Sachs: The Strange Case of Dr. Shock and Mr. Aid

The fifteenth of October 2011 was a global Day of Rage. In 950 cities around the world, people took to the streets to protest against rising inequality, endless austerity, and the unbridled power of investment banks and multinational corporations. This was the legacy of three decades of economic reforms dominated by the neoliberal principles of privatization, deregulation, and the dismantling of the welfare state. These reforms were supposed to deliver society from the dead hand of the state, in the name of individual freedom. First implemented by Augusto Pinochet in Chile in the 1970s, and driven forward by Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, the free market revolution had swept across the entire planet. Its vanguard promised rapid economic growth and the opportunity for everyone to improve their personal circumstances through hard work and private initiative. As long as there was free competition in all dimensions of economic life, the invisible hand of the market would ensure the best of all possible outcomes. Yet, in contrast to this utopian vision, the outcome had been persistent poverty, economic oligarchy, and a whirlwind of financial crises that had spiralled around the world before finally entering the heartlands of global capitalism with the financial crash of 2008 and the ensuing Great Recession. Neoliberalism was in crisis, and the people were on the streets demanding radical change.

The epicentre of these protests was Occupy Wall Street in Zuccotti Park, at the heart of New Yorks financial district. At some point around midday, a clean-cut middle-aged man arrived in the park, and began to address the crowd. He started by criticizing the Wall Street Journal for its dismissal of the Occupy movement, before attacking hedge fund managers, businessmen, and a series of banks and corporations. The crowd amplified him with the peoples mic., chanting each sentence in response, waving their hands in agreement, and spontaneously bursting into applause. As they cheered him on, the man became increasingly agitated, gesticulating violently, his voice shaking with emotion:

This is a democracy! We are the 99 per cent! We have the votes! You [the corporations and the hedge funds] may have the money, but we have the votes And across America theyre hearing this message. And around the world today theyre hearing this message. This is the beginning of change long overdue! Ronald Reagan put us on a path of disaster thirty years ago. He said Cut the taxes, Squeeze the poor, Throw people out of health, Dont educate the children. And every president since then has followed the same path. Because the big money pays them! And they sup with the rich and the billionaires! And its over now! We need a new direction for this country!

These words might seem unremarkable on a global Day of Rage. Similar things must have been shouted at many protest sites that day. Yet this man was not a typical grassroots agitator. This was Jeffrey Sachs development guru and rock star economist. Sachs has advised the governments of over 140 countries, and has been a tireless campaigner for the expansion of international aid in the name of the end of poverty. He is special advisor to the secretary general of the United Nations, director of the UNs Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and has chaired prominent UN commissions on health, development, and happiness. He is director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, with over 850 academic staff and an US$87 million annual research budget. His Millennium Villages Project is being rolled out across ten countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and is among the most high-profile development projects in the world. He is a friend of the stars, accompanying Bono, Madonna, and Angelina Jolie on high-profile journeys to Africa to publicize the plight of the continent. He has authored bestselling books on poverty alleviation, sustainable development, and the global economic crisis. He regularly provides his opinions on news channels such as CNN and the BBC, and makes frequent contributions to periodicals including the Financial Times and the Guardian. Time ranked him among the hundred most influential people in the world in 2004, and again in 2005, and the New York Times has described him as probably the most important economist in the world.

In short, Jeffrey Sachs is a man of considerable power and influence on the world stage. It was therefore rather surprising to find him making such a radical and impassioned speech at Occupy Wall Street. Surprising, you might say, but was it not all the more commendable for that? How uplifting, in these cynical times, to see a person of such status who is unafraid to take a principled stand. Perhaps yet something doesnt quite ring true. In the first place, Sachss claim to represent the 99 per cent sounds rather strange, given that he earns over US$300,000 a year and lives in an US$8 million Manhattan townhouse.