Switching Sides - the story of Jeffrey Sachs
I’d heard the name Jeffrey Sachs on occasion when the below interview aired. And in just a few seconds he’d gained my trust, if for no other reason but him daring to ‘speak misinformation’ on live TV, a crime worthy of a severe punishment back in the heady days of the Trusted News Initiative telling us all to ‘trust the science’… even if that did appear to change rather frequently.
But I then discovered that - in the case of Jeffrey Sachs - he not so much comes with baggage, but in fact with an entire airport full of said.
I wasn’t originally going to write this, because I generally consider engaging in these exercises, ‘calling out the other side’, a total waste of time - typically because they tend to degenerate into he-said-she-said scenarios, though with two exceptions to this rule of mine; AG Huff because to my astonishment I one day found that he’d blocked me in spite of us never really communicating. But - fortunately - I’d bought his book, and that gave me a reason to actually read it.
The second instance was David E Margin, whose general behaviour really rubbed me the wrong way. And though my initial, casual investigation did dig up some oddities, him having the gall to turn up to patronise triggered that particular reaction.
So why bother, when arguably more important topics need to be addressed? Simple. To address Bret Weinstein’s absurd notion that this is a ‘sloppy accusation’. I mean, have you actually spent even two minutes considering the overwhelming amount of evidence?
First off, let’s just establish who he is. And, frankly, the man is that fantastic, his CV likely is the size of a Yellow Pages phone book1.
Per his own site -
Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University
Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University from 2002 to 2016.
President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network
Co-Chair of the Council of Engineers for the Energy Transition
Academician of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences at the Vatican
Commissioner of the UN Broadband Commission for Development
Honorary Distinguished Professor at Sunway University
SDG Advocate for UN Secretary General António Guterres
Special Advisor to UN Secretaries-General Kofi Annan (2001-7), Ban Ki-moon (2008-16), and António Guterres (2017-18).
When reviewing a CV, you can usually suss out where a candidate has ‘added a little bit of VAT’, but the most brilliant part of Jeff’s CV is that… it quite simply is too modest!
But before we get there, let’s start by confirming that… yup, he’s very much involved with the United Nations. Here’s the UN Office for Partnerships, with added highlighting indicating that he even finds the time to write the occasional book2.
Let’s also quickly confirm that the ‘world-renowned economic professor, bestselling author, innovative educator, and global leader in sustainable development’ also finds the time to work with the UN-ITU collaboration; the Broadband Commission3.
That discovery rests somewhat uneasily with me, as the Broadband Commission is also an origin of the censorship drive - though surely, a man as fantastic as Jeff will persuade me otherwise in no time… possibly through yet another well-rehearsed act of feigned surprise...
However, it fortunately transpires that our resident superhero did not work on said censorship drive, but instead the integration of the SDGs in the context of all things broadband4. We appear to have gone from health- to SDGs-in-all-policies.
And he’s also involved with the Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development5, whose mission is to spread SDG joy, happiness, lollipops and unicorns around the world… in even measure, of course, anything but would lead to inequity, which given his ‘work on ending poverty, promoting economic growth, fighting hunger and disease, and promoting sustainable environmental practices‘ would quite simply be intolerable.
Jeff’s also a great believer in capitalism, you’ll find. As an example thereof, here’s the Center on Capitalism and Society6.
And during the post-collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, Sachs acted as an advisor to a range of now-former-state-planned-economies, including Poland7. I’m not entering the debate as to whether this was good or bad - plenty of others have. But I will say that this certainly is a controversial topic.
Jeff was further interviewed by the ‘The Creative Process & One Planet Podcast‘, specialising in ‘Conversations about Climate Change & Environmental Solutions‘ and other such fairytales. Of noteworthy, interviewed individuals we find David R Montgomery, the MacArthur Fellow who stands up for Rockefeller’s Sustainable World8, IPCC lead author Kevin Trenberth, whose 2009 email stating that ‘The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment, and it is a travesty that we can’t‘ has been all but forgotten, WEF member9 and ‘Founding Father of the Circular Economy‘ Walter Stahel, and the Global Footprint Network’s founding president, Mathis Wackernagel, who incidentally also is a member of the prestigious Malthusians; the Club of Rome10.
Either way, while advising the likes of Poland and the Soviet Union post-communism appears pretty cool - that’s 2nd gear stuff in Jeff’s world, as he even hangs out with UNESCO, Ban-Ki Moon and Pope Francis - though modest Jeff primarily does it because ‘he likes that we all agree on something’11, before adding that his favourite SDG is ‘… target 4.7 which says that everybody should learn about sustainable development. Everybody should learn about global citizenship‘
………………. Houston, we have a problem.
‘If you’re in elementary school up to university, you should be learning–What is climate change? What is biodiversity? What can we do about it?‘
… yup. 100% wedded to the establishment narrative. In fact, that statement might appear to somewhat undersell the point.
‘Everybody should learn sustainable development - students in every city, in the country, in every village - to work on how their own city can be sustainable… so many adults are completely irresponsible or they went to school without learning these things, and so the young people will know better.‘
Yeah, those old dudes (and dudettes) who have taken care of you for your entire life, they’re simply dumb hillbillies who recklessly endanger your life through their ignorant irresponsibility.
‘We need young people who are well-trained, who are well-educated, and ready to take on leadership so that we can actually solve 21st-century problems and not use 20th century mindsets. Everybody should learn tolerance for other people's cultures‘
… where said education of course is provided through a ‘trustworthy’ source - UNESCO - and further, you need to be ‘tolerant’ of other people’s cultures - unless they harbour ‘20th century mindsets’, of course…
Either way - in terms of coolness - why even stop with the Vatican? Why, as part of the Columbia Earth Institute he even gets to participate in Club Davos12, where he hangs out with Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, Angelina Jolie, Bill Gates… you catch the drift.
… but that wasn’t actually the first time he contributed to the World Economic Forum13… and this year is actually interesting, because that’s a few months prior to the release of the UN Global Compact.
He frequently discusses the sustainable development goals, even includes thoughts on financing the transition - he even knows how to navigate the complex topic of ‘human rights’.
And though his primary topic is the Sustainable Development Goals, he fears not venturing onto other complex topics - such as structural reforms, or human rights14. And on the topic of ‘COVID19, climate, nuclear war‘ he even found the time to contemplate how we should all go abouts ‘creating governance structures that would help us cope better with such crises in the future‘.
… of course, that Sachs believed every word out of China on the topic of Covid-19, to the extent of carrying a torch in regards to their authoritarian lockdown policies… well, that you’re supposed to casually ignore15.
… and while you can find him on occasion more than willing to point the finger at the United States in terms of ‘human rights principle shortcomings’16…
… he - and the Vatican - is more coy when it comes to similar issues in China17.
But what does Sachs and the Vatican actually cooperate on? Simples. ‘Ethics in Action’. And Jeff is particularly engaged in the ‘Climate Justice’ stream18, which broadcasts the ludicrous notion that religious morality is suddenly about climate zealotry.
Had Paul Carus lived to see this day, he’d feel so proud of himself.
… and though Jeffrey Sachs’ name is not listed on the page relating to ‘Corporate Responsibility‘19… which includes the likes of ‘carbon neutrality’, ‘human dignity’, ‘common goods’, ‘market prices reflecting… well… chaos theory‘, and promoting ‘institutional reforms to dismantle the embedded structures of sin‘ (please do stop laughing, this is real), not forgetting the ever-important ‘the business sector is a noble vocation when it operates in a moral framework‘, but more to the point - addressing the ‘crisis of ethics’ left behind by the 2009 bailout bonanza.
Of course, that this only happened because they refused to let those banks fail… actually, let’s not address inconveniencies… regardless of the topic allegedly being about ethics.
But if even Jeff’s name is not explicitly listed, there’s a reason why I included that webpage. See, Jeff does rather enjoy to speak of ethics20 -
‘Our interdependence and common global fate are the most important foundations for a new and shared global ethics that is so urgently needed‘
The topic of ‘Global Ethics’ is one I’ve covered a great deal - especially as of late21. But I am a mere amateur compared to Sachs, who in 2009 contributed to the Global Ethic Foundation’s business edition of Hans Kung’s ‘Towards a Global Ethic’… wait, let me quote the document itself -
‘In this declaration, the fundamental principles and values of a global economy are set forth, according to the Declaration toward a Global Ethic issued by the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago in 1993.‘
And in the list of first signatories, and in company with Hans Kung himself, Michel Camdessus of the French National Bank, Mary Robinson (Collegium International22), and James D. Wolfensohn of the World Bank we duly find -
‘Jeffrey Sachs, Director, The Earth Institute, Columbia University‘
… and that genuinely is not a one-off, as he in 2011 opined23 -
‘Jeffrey Sachs, Earth Institute, said the world faces a global ethics crisis, and finding the path to sustainable development will require a technological roadmap, a global carbon levy and regional cooperation…‘
… yes… to solve our ethics crisis, we need a global carbon levy.
… this belief was further amplified in October, 2023, when the Shandong Office of Hong Kong Business Daily reported that -
‘Jeffrey Sachs, President of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network and Professor of Economics at Columbia University, delivered a keynote speech on "Introduction to Ancient Wisdom - Aristotle, Buddha, Confucius, and Contemporary Global Ethics." He believed that ancient wisdom can enable us to find common values for the 21st century‘
Global ethics and common values.
And to be quite honest here, there’s so much material on the topic of Sachs and those obviously-ripe-for-abuse ‘Global Ethics’, so I’ll focus on just a few. Here’s ‘Transforming Our World: Achieving the 2030 Agenda through Culture and Education‘24 -
‘The Construction of a New Value System… An understanding of sustainability as the right path, the only one possible, fair and responsible, should be instilled in citizens as a deep social norm, mainly through culture and education‘
Ie, Jeffrey Sachs suggests using ‘lifelong learning’ and ‘global citizenship’ in combination with subtle brainwashing through movies, music, books, and other media in order to get us there. This, incidentally, is also the ‘humanitarian’ path.
And this… insidious mind virus… sadly also infected European politics. Courtesy of the European Parliament in June, 2018, we have ‘ETHICS DUMPING - LOOKING FOR JUSTICE‘25, guest starring ‘Prof. Jeffrey Sachs will provide a keynote address on the link between inclusive development, justice and the SDGs.‘
… and on the topic of ‘justice’, … and ‘well-being’… ‘inclusion’… ‘environmental sustainability’… why not opt for a 'holistic approach’ to address the ‘economic, social and environmental aspects of sustainable development‘26.
But enough about ethics. Actually, have27 a28 few29 more30. And pay attention to him also recommending economic debt inductance. We haven’t yet addressed this, but will soon. And in which context?
‘Public debt and intergenerational ethics‘
Incidentally, ‘intergenerational equity’ or ‘justice’ or… even ‘well-being’… is original sin Marxist trash. But guess on which topic our ‘side switching’ friend has penned a book chapter31.
Let’s move in a different direction. The year 2000 saw the release of ‘Health & Human Development in the New Global Economy‘32, stating - and this really is no joke -
‘So where will all this disparity and polarization lead? Some of the foremost ideologues of the New World Order, such as George Soros, Paul Krugman, and Jeffrey Sachs, have anxiously called on those in government to establish new regulatory structures for the market, …‘
… and remaining on the topic of health, in the year 2020 he was on the Lancet’s Covid-19 Commission33, in fact selected as the second ‘stakeholder’ -
Guillaume Lafortune
UN Sustainable Development Solutions NetworkJeffrey D Sachs
Center for Sustainable Development, Earth Institute, Columbia UniversityRichard Horton
The LancetJessamy Bagenal
The LancetYanis Ben Amor
Center for Sustainable Development, Earth Institute, Columbia UniversityOzge Karadag Caman
Center for Sustainable Development, Earth Institute, Columbia University
The reason I add Lafortune first is because he likely would have been the project lead, whose… only… job was to assign the second ‘stakeholder’ (Sachs), who then got the Lancet on board (Horton, Bagenal), followed by 2 colleagues at the Center for Sustainable Development (Amor, Caman).
Just one question. Covid-19 was supposedly about a dangeous illness, no? Well, with that being the case, why were - beyond the publisher - all 4 early ‘stakeholders’ all Sustainable Development acolytes, and not a single health professional appointed?
And 2020 also saw the fabrication of the brand new concept of ‘Circular Health’34, clearly derived from the concept of the ‘circular economy’. And what’s actually quite amazing is that it - in relatively short space - manages to hit the concepts of One Health, Spaceship Earth, Planetary Health, the Circular Economy, the SDGs, and even express a world view squarely in line with that of the Baha’i.
… and who do we find, promoting this recently fabricated garbage? Why if it isn’t our old friend35, who even manages to drag the alleged ‘climate crisis’ into the debate.
… and - though I hardly see the point at this stage - let’s finish off the last few links as I gathered the material. Here he is, debating the transition to a ‘new economic policy’36. No, sorry - silly me - it says ‘new economic paradigm’. Totally different thing37.
And it’s at this stage I will do something I said I wouldn’t. Because while I stand by the message of my tweet -
… this is just endless. There’s scarcely a single, establishment narrative topic on which he disagrees. Well… apart from NordStream and Ukraine.
… but then, those areas are well beyond the spheres of his influence, and consequently, I strongly suspect these… characters… use this as a strategy to build up credit. Because even if he ‘spoke misinformation to power’, it’s not as though he’ll become the next NATO Secretary General, after all…
… right?
These skuzbuckets have the carbon footprint larger than a small country, they then have the audacity to make plans to control reducing the quality of everyone else’s life.
If we shut down all the institutions such as the UN, NATO, EU plus every single other building they utilise to make their punishment plans it would make a huge dent in their decarbonise figures,.
There should also be a life long ban on any single one of them travelling more than 15 minutes from their homes, they made these plans and rules so let them live by them.
Instead we having them prancing around the world peacocking on how only they can save it with this nonsense.
Also they really do live in la la land with this respecting other cultures, I’m am quite happy to do that as long as that culture is sat within its own borders and no good ever comes when you mix people with 50 different cultures into one spot.
They really are happy clappy doolally thinking that the masses will not turn on them, we already have the bitching going on on how one already gets more priorities and freebies than another import and the original taxpayers are paying for this free for all.
Bravo! Well done, excellent analysis, summary and documentation