Price of Civilization

[jackkansas]

I had not previously heard of Jeffrey Sachs. But while waiting for LCB to buy books at the Barnes & Noble off San Pablo Ave. in El Cerrito last night, I caught the rebroadcast on KQED of his City Arts and Lectures talk from Nov. 6. (The City Arts and Lectures series is hosted by actress Linda Hunt, you know, Mapes from Dune [1984].) The talk was presumably part of the promotional circuit for Sach's newest book, The Price of Civilization. I found his City Arts and Lectures talk very compelling — while I just chant "Tax the rich!", Sachs (a Harvard-educated economist currently teaching at Columbia and a long-time international consultant for developing countries) spells out in considerable detail how to implement a rebalancing of the country's economy.

Unfortunately, City Arts and Lectures does not make previous talks available as podcasts — the rebroadcast on KQED is the only wider distribution. But YouTube has two more informal videos of Sachs that I invite you to view. The first is an interview with a Sachs supporting Occupy Wall Street (about twenty minutes). The second is an appearance on the Charlie Rose show promoting Price of Civilization (about ten minutes). Except for economist Paul Krugman, I have not yet heard more articulate proposals for correcting our financial dysfunction.

I'll be buying Price of Civilization when I pick up some books I ordered at Leigh's. I'll let you know what I think.