Jeffrey Sachs

"Described by the New York Times as "probably the most important economist in the world," Jeffrey Sachs is also one of the most prominent public intellectuals in the Western world, shaping mainstream economic theory, advising governments on development policy, and appearing as a talking head in major media outlets. Though he achieved notoriety in the 80s and 90s by pioneering a brutal form of free market engineering he called "shock therapy," Sachs has since positioned himself as a voice of the center-left, providing moral condemnation of Third World debt and structural adjustment, and intervening on African development, especially through his Millenium Villages Project in Sub-Saharan Africa. But appearances can be superficial. Jeffrey Sachs: The Strange Case of Dr. Shock & Mr. Aid is an account of how Sachs successfully rebranded himself as an evangelical development expert and savior of the Third World, while in fact reinforcing the neoliberal project itself. Based on documentary research and on-the-ground investigation of the Millenium Villages Project, Jeffrey Sachs exposes its namesake's Jekyll/Hyde complex, showing Sachs to be no more than a new, more human face of the neoliberal project itself"—