The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time (Hardcover)

by Jeffrey D. Sachs (Author) "It is still midmorning in Malawi when we arrive at a small village, Nthandire, about an hour outside of Lilongwe, the capital..." (more)
Key Phrases: antimalarial bed nets, enlightened globalization, ending extreme poverty, United States, World Bank, Millennium Development Goals (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Celebrated economist Jeffrey Sachs has a plan to eliminate extreme poverty around the world by 2025. If you think that is too ambitious or wildly unrealistic, you need to read this book. His focus is on the one billion poorest individuals around the world who are caught in a poverty trap of disease, physical isolation, environmental stress, political instability, and lack of access to capital, technology, medicine, and education. The goal is to help these people reach the first rung on the "ladder of economic development" so they can rise above mere subsistence level and achieve some control over their economic futures and their lives. To do this, Sachs proposes nine specific steps, which he explains in great detail in The End of Poverty. Though his plan certainly requires the help of rich nations, the financial assistance Sachs calls for is surprisingly modest--more than is now provided, but within the bounds of what has been promised in the past. For the U.S., for instance, it would mean raising foreign aid from just 0.14 percent of GNP to 0.7 percent. Sachs does not view such help as a handout but rather an investment in global economic growth that will add to the security of all nations. In presenting his argument, he offers a comprehensive education on global economics, including why globalization should be embraced rather than fought, why international institutions such as the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank need to play a strong role in this effort, and the reasons why extreme poverty exists in the midst of great wealth. He also shatters some persistent myths about poor people and shows how developing nations can do more to help themselves.

Despite some crushing statistics, The End of Poverty is a hopeful book. Based on a tremendous amount of data and his own experiences working as an economic advisor to the UN and several individual nations, Sachs makes a strong moral, economic, and political case for why countries and individuals should battle poverty with the same commitment and focus normally reserved for waging war. This important book not only makes the end of poverty seem realistic, but in the best interest of everyone on the planet, rich and poor alike. --Shawn Carkonen

From Publishers Weekly
Sachs came to fame advising "shock therapy" for moribund economies in the 1980s (with arguably positive results); more recently, as director of Columbia University's Earth Institute, he has made news with a plan to end global "extreme poverty"--which, he says, kills 20,000 people a day--within 20 years. While much of the plan has been known to economists and government leaders for a number of years (including Kofi Annan, to whom Sachs is special advisor), this is Sachs's first systematic exposition of it for a general audience, and it is a landmark book.For on-the-ground research in reducing disease, poverty, armed conflict and environmental damage, Sachs has been to more than 100 countries, representing 90% of the world's population. The book combines his practical experience with sharp professional analysis and clear exposition. Over 18 chapters, Sachs builds his case carefully, offering a variety of case studies, detailing small-scale projects that have worked and crunching large amounts of data. His basic argument is that "[W]hen the preconditions of basic infrastructure (roads, power, and ports) and human capital (health and education) are in place, markets are powerful engines of development." In order to tread "the path to peace and prosperity," Sachs believes it is encumbant upon successful market economies to bring the few areas of the world that still need help onto "the ladder of development." Writing in a straightfoward but engaging first person, Sachs keeps his tone even whether discussing failed states or thriving ones. For the many who will buy this book but, perhaps, not make it all the way through, chapters 12 through 14 contain the blueprint for Sachs's solution to poverty, with the final four making a rigorous case for why rich countries (and individuals) should collectively undertake it--and why it is affordable for them to do so. If there is any one work to put extreme poverty back onto the global agenda, this is it. (Mar. 21)
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Press; 1st Printing edition (December 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594200459
• ISBN-13: 978-1594200458
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (124 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #38,880 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

73 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Economist as Savior, October 22, 2005

By	Omer Belsky (Haifa, Israel) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Jeffery Sachs' "The End of Poverty" is three books in one: First, it is an exploration of the world, focusing on economics but surveying wide array of topics regarding international relations and politics, and offers a portrait of the planet today. Second, it is a crash course in development economics. Finally, it is an impassioned plea for more western aid to poor countries particularly in Africa.

I know of no better book for understanding the current state of the world. In several brilliant
Chapters, Sachs takes us through the hyperinflation of Bolivia, the post Cold War transition to market economies in Poland, Russia, India and China, and the struggles for existence in Sub Saharan Africa. All these are put into context of International Relations, Economics and Politics, and personified through Sachs' description of his own role in these happenings. It's a tour de force.

The weaknesses here are the complete absence of the Middle East, and Sachs' all-too-human tendency to portray himself as the epicenter of the events he describes, convincing Polish politicians to accept responsibility, and leading the fight against hyper inflation in Bolivia. But his involvement has not necessarily been as influential or beneficial as he portrays it: Bolivia, at least, can hardly be called a success story; Even though Sachs praises both its leaders and its policies, Bolivia is still not up to its 1980 level of GDP per Capita (p. 108).

As a primer on development economics, "The End of Poverty" is a more of a mixed bag. At best, it offers powerful insights, particularly about the importance of Geography to economic development. Although the case has been made before (most famously by Jared Diamond in 'Guns, Germs and Steel" but also by David Landes and others), Sachs really drives the point home about how close a relationship exists between geography and economic possibilities. Possibly he overstates the case somewhat - based on their geography, Egypt and Panama should have been economic empires - but Sachs truly has opened my eyes to a dimension in the question of economic development which I had barely considered before.

Africa is the chief victim of its geography, Sachs argues. In his view, the solution to Africa's problems is not really economic - it is not a matter of right monetary and fiscal policies but of hospital beds, malaria nets and AIDS treatments - readily available technocratic solutions which are missing for lack of funds only.

On the other hand, some of the chapters of theory are painful to read, particularly the one in which Sachs compares development economics to emergency medicine. His history of the world economy from time immemorial to the present is pedestrian and hardly innovative (it owes much to David Landes' superior "The Wealth and Poverty of Nations". Like Landes, it also owes much to Adam Smith - he is quoted in virtually every chapter of Sachs' book). But development theory - as opposed to technocratic solutions - is ridiculously over simplified (in Sachs' view, it boils down to two words - "foreign aid" pp. 247-250), as William Easterly points out in his review (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25562-2005Mar10.html) - it's false to think that we know all the answers, and that the UN and other aid agency are sufficiently efficient to carry out the solution even if we had known them. For development economics, Easterly's own "The Elusive Quest for Growth" is a must read.

As an advocate, Sachs's chief cause is persuading Western governments, and particularly the US, to live up to their obligation of spending 0.7 percent of each nation's GDP on aid. Sachs is an enthusiastic advocate of the Millenium Development Goals - a UN program to half poverty by 2015 - and of UN secretary general Kofi Annan (whom he calls "the world's finest stayrsman" p. 205).

Sachs effectively promotes his development goals from challenges left and right; Sachs points out that African Governments are no more corrupt then other governments (pp. 312-314); that "economic freedom" does not guarantee economic growth (p.320), and that reducing Infant Mortality rates coincides with a reduction in birth rates (pp. 324-325). I was also shocked to realize how little the US spends on foreign Aid (I knew it was little, but I didn't know it proportionally less than any Western country save Italy, p. 302) and that the 400 richest Americans are 20% richer than the one hundred and sixty one million, three hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants of Botswana, Nigeria, Senegal and Uganda (p. 305). Sachs convincingly argues that America often finds itself militarily involved in economically collapsing states (whether Vietnam, Lebanon, Zaire or Bosnia Herzegovina), and that indeed almost every country in which the US had to intervene suffered "state failure" (p.334). Wouldn't it be better to spend more on preventive medicine instead of risking American troops in the battlefield?

From the left, although Sachs identifies with the motives of the "Seattle Movement", he disagrees with their policy recommendations, calling for more - not less - trade, and for a large role for Multi National Corporations in reducing poverty.

Yet Sachs offers little place for dissenting views? Is the UN really this effective an instrument for poverty reduction? Is money spent in Africa really solving problems? To date, no country has been lifted from poverty via the large scale government sponsored policies Sachs promotes - instead, they have developed through mostly their own efforts with limited amounts of outside help. Africa does need more foreign aid - but maybe it needs more foreign humility, too.

58 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Much to offer (even if you don't believe in Sachs's plan to end poverty), March 3, 2006

By	Magic Man (Brigadoon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time (Paperback)

Sachs covers a lot of ground: a bit of world economic history, a bit of travelogue, moral arguments for foreign aid, and ... The Plan (to end world poverty by 2025).

The Plan itself, while mostly fascinating to read (with patches of exhausting technical detail), has its challenges. The biggest problem is that, while the investments he outlines will theoretically jump-start growth, it has never been tested, and the West has a long history of failed development ideas. Among other more technical points, Sachs either underestimates the inefficiencies in the aid agencies and in governments, or he overestimates the ease of overcoming them.

But the plan (and how to pay for it) makes up only four out of eighteen chapters. Here is what else awaits you: a brief economic history of the world and characterization of the rich-poor divides in the world today (chapters 1 and 2), a primer on growth economics (chapter 3), Sachs's prescription for how development economics should be practiced (chapter 4), tales of Sachs's very high level consulting in Bolivia, Poland, and Russia (chapters 5 through 7), economic histories of India and China (chapters 8 and 9), an overview of the economic and health situation in Africa (chapter 10), Sachs's views on how the West should respond to terrorism (chapter 11), The Plan (and how to pay for it (chapters 12 through 15), dispelling myths about why aid doesn't work (chapter 16), and the pep talk (chapters 17 and 18). The book can largely be read piecemeal. I particularly enjoyed chapters 1, 5 through 9, and 16.

One wearisome feature is the self-promotion. Sachs is the center of everything good that happens in this book. He has only praise for organizations he still works with (the UN and Columbia University's Earth Institute) but ample criticism for others (the World Bank, Western governments).

For more in this field, William Easterly's The Elusive Quest for Growth gives an excellent account of trends in development aid for Africa and why they haven't worked. Robert Klitgaard's Tropical Gangsters is an entertaining and insightful memoir of a World Bank economist advising in Sub-Saharan Africa.

106 of 120 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars One Harvard professor's attempt to solve poverty, August 20, 2005

By	Peter Lorenzi (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

A wonderful thesis. The initial tone and first-hand accounts and analyses (Chapters 1-4) are great. Sachs' first few chapters read like Thomas Friedman, only Sachs publishes in journals and Friedman publishes in the New York Times. And Friedman has a few best sellers. Sachs is a very smart, accomplished, compassionate economist.

Sachs tries to provide some context. He seems to have personally saved first Bolivia (Chapter 5), then Poland (Chapter 6), then Russia (Chapter 7), then China (Chapter 8), and then India (Chapter 9), not from poverty, but from the mistakes of (American) foreign policy, greedy bankers, and the IMF. He always seems to get it right and they're wrong. He decries their solutions in favor of his own: demand debt forgiveness.

Then Sachs shifts into using his economic, statistical, and networking skills to propose solutions to eradicate poverty. His fundamental argument is that the rich countries need to give more money to the poor countries, and he seems pretty angry about the lack of compassion, especially from the United States, for the world's poor. Perhaps Sachs could start with his home institution, Harvard. This university has an almost egregious endowment in excess of $22 billion, pays its top fund manager $50 million a year, and employs Andrei Shleifer who "was discovered by the U.S. government to be making personal investments in Russia at the same time that he was on a U.S. government contract to advise the Russian leadership on privatization." (p. 144) This privatization effort, as Sachs reports, sold $100 billion in assets for $1 billion. Sachs thinks that we should then forgive the Russian government its debts. Rather than forgive debt, why not transfer some of that $100 billion to the creditors and not to political cronies favored by the government?

Look at China. Sachs commends their two thousand years of "a workable model of political organization" and their "remarkably little internal violence," only to show how China spent the last thousand years watching its GDP decline from 120% to 5% of western European GDP and employing policies, even recently, where "tens of millions of deaths resulted." Starving tens if not hundreds of millions of your own people is internal violence. Wiping out 95% of your GDP advantage is hardly a "workable model". And now, after a thousand years of self-imposed misery, China has climbed back from 5% to 10% of western European per capita GDP and their economic development is seen as a triumph. And Sachs laments how under British rule Indian GDP per capital grew at a 0.2% rate from 1870 to independence in 1947; compared to China's self-managed decline, British rule might be commended.

Sachs disdains the "money down the drain" argument (p. 310) against foreign aid, an argument that trillions have already been given, but counters it with an annual per capita expenditure calculation that doesn't counter the "money down the drain" argument. He describes Hernando DeSoto's "Mystery of capitalism" argument for deeds and titles to land for the poor as " a single factor ... to explain single-handedly the failures of development." (p. 321) Yes, economic development is more complicated than that, but isn't this a better, enduring, sustainable start than the "mystery" of one-time debt forgiveness? And DeSoto focuses on what Sachs ignores: self-help, or micro enterprises, as a grass roots alternative to repeated, well-intentioned but top heavy governmental interventions.

Sachs cites a study (pp. 322-23) that concludes that African men have fewer sex partners than men in Brazil and Thailand, to show that morals are not the cause of African AIDS, citing migrant workers and the lack of circumcision as possible explanations, but he does not seem to want to assign a root cause for the widespread prevalence of AIDS in Africa, moral or migratory. But the best cure for AIDS is prevention, not cheap AIDS drugs or foreign aid. And what does he think causes AIDS to spread in Africa? Dirty needles? Tattoo parlors? I once asked a Marshall Scholar applicant if she would consider adding an abstinence argument to her condom distribution AIDS prevention program in Central America. She declined, saying that she would not want to impose her morals on the people. It is a matter of biology, not morality, but sometimes moral admonitions can solve biological problems. People need information more than money, prevention more than drug treatments.

Sachs lauds the west, especially Britain, for acting against its own self-interest to abolish the slave trade (pp. 361-62) but fails to note the presence of slavery in Africa and Asia today. He wants to "rescue the IMF" (p. 366), the same organization that for most of the book he sees as unfit to deal with the debt crisis (see John Perkins' "Confessions of an economic hit man"), but he offers no rescue plan. He concludes by trying to dispel other "myths" (Chapter 16) and offering three pages (pp. 365-67) of argumentative platitudes, e.g., "redeem" the United States, which he claims is the world's "most feared and divisive country."

But all is not lost. The Institute for International Economics has reported that world poverty fell from 44% of the global population in 1980 to 13% in 2000, its fastest decline in history. This result indicates that the United Nations main Millennium Development Goal (p. 211) -- reducing world poverty below 15 percent -- has already been met. Another Harvard professor, David Landes, provides a more thorough historical context and explanation in "The wealth and poverty of nations," including the effects of culture, climate, and tropical diseases on poverty. C. K. Prahalad's "The fortune at the bottom of the pyramid" shows how basic business and marketing practices are lifting people out of poverty more than any government, NGO, or debt-forgiveness program. "The new heroes," from the recent PBS series, funded in part by a foundation started by the founder of eBay, shows micro enterprises that work. Sachs shows that Hillary Clinton's take on the African proverb, "It takes a village," doesn't seem to be working in African villages. I really wanted to love and recommend this book. A telling sign might have been when Sachs describes Kofi Annan as "the world's finest statesman." (p. 205) Rather than just give poor countries fish (or recommend that poor countries tear up their bills for their fish), rich countries ought to teach people how to raise a diverse, sustainable economy.