Jeffrey Sachs at Occupy Wall Street

Posted on October 18 2011

On Saturday, Jeffrey Sachs, who spoke at the 2011 Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development Conference earlier this month, made an impassioned impromptu speech at Zuccoti Park. The speech covered a range of topics, but at 8:01, he addressed tax havens:

“Its not because we think wealth is bad.
Its because we think you cheat.
Its because you don't follow the law.
Its because you don't pay your taxes.
And then you say we have no money in this country,
To educate our children.
We have the money.
Its your money in the Cayman Islands.
Its Your money in the Swiss bank accounts.
And if you don't bring it home,
We're going to bring it home.
Because this is a country of laws.
Because this is a democracy.
And we are the 99%.
We have the votes.”

Few have moved more than Sachs in realising his earlier errors on neoliberalism. In the face of the evidence he has changed his mind. Others need to do the same.

 

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4 Responses

  1. Teresa Harding says:
    October 19 2011 at 9:28 am

    I too am pleased that Sachs has come to his senses because at one time he had a blind faith in the power of the market to drive development.

  2. Patrick Quinn says:
    October 19 2011 at 8:55 pm

    Excellent. Jeffrey Sachs sums up in just a few simple words the anger many people are feeling.

    I’ve posted the speech above on a couple of threads on the Guardian’s Comment is Free website (together with a link to this page) – got quite a few recommendations.