Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet by Sachs, Jeffrey D., Read by: Hillgartner, and Malcolm

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Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet
Available from Amazon
Price: $65.70
Updated on 8-2-2009.

Features

Audio CD

Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks, Inc.; Unabridged edition (March 1, 2008)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1433233347

ISBN-13: 978-1433233340

Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches

Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces ()

From Publishers Weekly
In this sobering but optimistic manifesto, development economist Sachs (The End of Poverty) argues that the crises facing humanity are daunting—but solutions to them are readily at hand. Sachs focuses on four challenges for the coming decades: heading off global warming and environmental destruction; stabilizing the world's population; ending extreme poverty; and breaking the political logjams that hinder global cooperation on these issues. The author analyses economic data, demographic trends and climate science to create a lucid, accessible and suitably grim exposition of looming problems, but his forte is elaborating concrete, pragmatic, low-cost remedies complete with benchmarks and budgets. Sachs's entire agenda would cost less than 3% of the world's annual income, and he notes that a mere two days' worth of Pentagon spending would fund a comprehensive antimalaria program for Africa, saving countless lives. Forthright government action is the key to avoiding catastrophe, the author contends, not the unilateral, militarized approach to international problems that he claims is pursued by the Bush administration. Combining trenchant analysis with a resounding call to arms, Sachs's book is an important contribution to the debate over the world's future. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review
“Lucid, quietly urgent, and relentlessly logical... this is Bigthink with a capital B.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“Jeffrey Sachs never disappoints. . . . This book is an excellent resource for all those who want to understand what changes the twenty-first century may bring.”
—Kofi Annan, winner of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize and former secretary-general of the United Nations

“Common Wealth explains the most basic economic reckoning that the world faces.”
—Al Gore, winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize and former vice president of the United States --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Reader Reviews
This review is from: Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet (Hardcover) My local church is devoting the next several months to promoting the UN's eight "Millennium Development Goals," which have been formally endorsed by the Episcopal Church USA. I read "Commonwealth" to get new insights about the many challenges, obstacles and opportunities we face in the 21st century. Unfortunately, the author's conclusions left me feeling vaguely unsatisfied -- you could even say "intellectually malnourished." Jeffrey Sachs is no doubt a brilliant thinker who sees the big picture, but I question his sense of realism. For example, when Sachs says, with great confidence, that there is plenty of fossil fuel to sustain continued global growth until at least the year 2100 -- I wonder if he reads the newspaper on a regular basis. The current spike in oil prices illustrates the dramatic political dangers inherent in today's world energy market. His calm prescriptions for transitioning to both liquefied coal and renewable energy forms doesn't seem to ring true. We may end up in a very dark place long before that happens (e.g., massive increases in hunger, regional wars, resource riots, etc.). Much of the rest of the book makes good sense, but it's so general and broad as to be almost "untestable" in the real world. Saying we should invest in the development and adoption of environmentally sustainable technology is sort of like saying we should remember to breathe: "Yeah, OK, but give me some specifics here, Jeffery!" Sachs comes off sounding like a politician who doesn't want to be held accountable for campaign promises, so he hedges every statement with a long-term perspective and a truckload of weasel words (implied disclaimers). It's not particularly honest, if you ask me. In my research for the church program, I found MUCH MORE useful the list of 30 specific solutions developed by the Copenhagen Consensus 2008. They are hard-nosed, pragmatic and very testable. [...] My advice for Sachs: Come down from the 60,000 foot view and give us "foot soldiers of change" something more useful -- something less cognitive and more practical.

Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet
List Price: $90.00
Available from Amazon
Price: $65.70
Updated on 8-2-2009.