Thank you for putting this on the list. I have had very mixed
feelings and experiences with Jeffery Sachs; but I think the
good side of him that I've seen comes uppermost in this article.
I've been working in Russia since 1993, and have encountered a
lot of justifiable anti-Sachs feeling there: he had a fixation
on ending inflation AT ANY COST that in the end had an unbearable
cost -- the dismantling of virtually the entire Soviet safety net,
when it was about to be desperately needed. (Along with some
other costs.) I've also been aware, as a neighbor of the
Harvard Institute for International Development, that his own
arrogance is pretty unpopular. All the same, I always remember
that when I was running a series of seminars at Boston
University, in the late '80s, Sachs came and presented a paper
on the need for writing off the external debt of poor nations,
and a reasonable way of doing this, that was absolutely right,
in both humane and economic terms. I'm glad to see that he is
again trying to get backing for a similar initiative. I fear
that some of his mistakes of the last ten years may reduce his
credibility when he speaks, as now, about the responsibilities
of the rich nations. I guess what I learn from this, above all,
is that people are always a mixed bag. If I had only seen Sachs'
effect on Russia, I'd have had one very negative opinion of him;
if I'd only heard the scuttlebut at Harvard, I'd have had another;
I'm glad that I was introduced to his better side first.
Neva Goodwin, Co-director
Global Development And Enviroment Institute
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
web address: http://www.tufts.edu/gdae
street address:
G-DAE, Cabot Center
Tufts University
Medford, MA 02155
