I have
a review of Jeffrey Sachs' Commonwealth in today's Washington Post. Here's the punchline:
In laying out this case, Sachs makes a significant contribution to a peculiar genre of nonfiction: the Great Global Scheme. Economists ranging from Hernando de Soto to Joseph Stiglitz have written in this genre, in which (typically) a great economist diagnoses the world's ills, then proposes sweeping policies to cure them. Political scientists often read the prescriptions with amusement because the author almost always relies on the "political will" of leaders. Indeed, by Page 11, Sachs has already declared, "We don't need to break the bank, we only need common goodwill." This is a polite way of hoping that powerful politicians will ignore powerful political incentives.
Go read the whole thing.
[
This is the second book of Sachs you've been asked to review for a major newspaper. Why not ask a real economist?--ed. I think that's precisely the reason -- as someone not in Sachs' field, I have no fear of saying anything critical.]
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