Quotes by Jeffrey Sachs

“The Russian drama began at the end of 1991, when the Soviet Union mercifully ended. Russia and 14 other new countries emerged from the ruins of the Soviet Union. Every one of those 15 new states faced a profound historical, economic, financial, social and political challenge.”

“For many parts of the world, the chasm that has to be crossed to get from where they were, whether its a dictatorship, economic collapse, financial crisis or all of the above, to the other side, that is a working market economy and a functioning democracy, is extraordinarily difficult and requires help.”

“Globalization was a deep trend pushed by technology and right ideas, as much as anything else.”

“Russia has gone through eight years of continuing economic pain.”

“In 1991, a miraculous thing happened, and thats the Soviet Union ended. So there was an opportunity to build a very healthy and new world, on the basis of the change that the Russian people themselves wanted. But for Russia to make that change was going to be one of the most remarkably difficult and complex passages imaginable.”

“The Russian government not only acted corruptly, not only built up a new oligarchy of billionaires out of nothing, basically, but also gave away its most valuable financial assets-its ownership of the huge natural resource sector in Russia.”

“In Asia, a lot of successful economies that had been living on their own saving, decided to open up their financial markets to international capital in the early 1990s. So here were countries doing quite well, but they decided theyd borrow a bit more and do even better.”

“Business often does a good job supporting communities: the arts, universities, and scientific enterprises... But that philosophy has rarely reached poor countries. Even businesses that are enlightened in their home bases see Africa, Latin America, and parts of Asia as places to exploit natural resources or use cheap labor.”

“The essential truth for developing countries is, if you try to live by yourself, you will cut yourself off from the amazing progress of world technology. You wont be able to purchase the goods that you need from abroad, because youre not exporting to the rest of the world. You have to be part of the world system.”

“Russia increasingly lived on short-term borrowing. Now, this was an extraordinary merry-go-round.”

The great leaders of the second world war alliance, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, understood the twin sides of destruction and salvation. Their war aims were not only to defeat fascism, but to create a world of shared prosperity.

We had a booming stock market in 1929 and then went into the worlds greatest depression. We have a booming stock market in 1999. Will the bubble somehow burst, and then we enter depression? Well, some things are not different.

Weve taken the view that if the rest of the world would democratize and create market economies, that would spread the benefits of prosperity around the world, and that it would enhance our own prosperity, and our own stability and security, as well.