• TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
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    1 day ago

    I would really take anything he says with a grain of salt…the dude is literally the person who invented shock therapy for post Soviet States. He’s not a reliable narrator and his only real goal is to spread Keynesian economics and convince authoritarian governments to privatize state assets.

    • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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      21 hours ago

      Not to paint Sachs as a perfect saint, but Naomi Klein really oversold his villainry in her book. Sachs was not the architect of shock therapy, which is a neoliberal economics project in direct opposition to Sach’s Keynesian economics school. As capitalist positions go, Keynesianism is comparatively good. He talked about it a little last year on Breaking Points. I tend to think that he was dropped into the former Warsaw Pact states when he was young, idealistic, and largely ignorant of US neocolonialism.

      • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
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        21 hours ago

        I find it interesting that people here are falling over themselves to defend a capitalist economist. Is supporting Russian nationalism so important that we now defend a participant in the destruction of the Soviet system?

        • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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          21 hours ago

          You’re arguing with straw men. I’m not defending capitalism nor the destruction of the Soviet Union. Nobody is confusing Sachs for a comrade. I said, “as capitalist positions go.” There’s a difference between Keynesianism and neocolonial asset stripping of the commons.

          • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
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            20 hours ago

            You’re arguing with straw men. I’m not defending capitalism

            I claimed you were defending a capitalist economist, which you are.

            My original statement was to take anything he said with a grain of salt and that he pioneered what would one day be labeled as shock therapy.

            Which people then claimed he didn’t do, based on his own claims.

    • wellfill@lemmy.ml
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      23 hours ago

      No he typically tries to stabilize economies, thats his expertise. He tried to argue that the US should have helped russia economically. His advice was mostly ignored by soviets and later by Yelstin during the horrendous privatization.

      But he is diplomatic, so yes he filters what he says.

      • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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        19 hours ago

        “all he wanted was to spread a bit of democracy to the savages” 😩

        • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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          17 hours ago

          At least he has the decency to openly admit that what was done in the 90s was absolutely wrong, and I think he’s been an important voice denouncing US imperialism precisely because he’s seen how it works from the inside.

          • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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            16 hours ago

            sure, that doesnt mean he can be trusted. the “now a fighter for democracy” bar is very high for people who did what he did, and are what he is.

            • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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              16 hours ago

              I don’t think we have to trust him, but when he says things that are obviously correct then it’s worth sharing that. Also, the people that need convincing are more likely to listen to somebody like Sachs.

      • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
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        23 hours ago

        In 1989, Sachs advised Poland’s anticommunist Solidarity movement and the government of Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki. He wrote a comprehensive plan for the transition from central planning to a market economy which became incorporated into Poland’s reform program led by Finance Minister Leszek Balcerowicz. Sachs was the main architect of Poland’s debt reduction operation. Sachs and IMF economist David Lipton advised on the rapid conversion of all property and assets from public to private ownership. Closure of many uncompetitive factories ensued.[33] In Poland, Sachs was firmly on the side of rapid transition to capitalism. At first, he proposed American-style corporate structures, with professional managers answering to many shareholders and a large economic role for stock markets. That did not bode well with the Polish authorities, but he then proposed that large blocks of the shares of privatized companies be placed in the hands of private banks.[34] As a result, there were some economic shortages and inflation, but prices in Poland eventually stabilized.[35][independent source needed] The government of Poland awarded Sachs one of its highest honors in 1999, the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit.[36] He also received an honorary doctorate from the Kraków University of Economics.[21] Based on Poland’s success, his advice was sought first by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and by his successor, Russian President Boris Yeltsin, on the transition of the USSR/Russia to a market economy.[37]

        Sachs’ methods for stabilizing economies became known as shock therapy and were similar to successful approaches used in Germany after the two world wars.[31] He faced criticism for his role after the Russian economy faced significant struggles after adopting the market-based shock therapy in the early 1990s.[38][39][40]

        • Thebigguy@lemmy.ml
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          15 hours ago

          yes even if the state does manage to buy back assets and hold them for a long time and actually run them properly as long as there are capitalists competing with the state there will always be an incentive to flog the states assets for cheap price and entshittify them it’s why social democracy is a bandaid

        • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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          17 hours ago

          is it just me or neoliberalism always looks like its decaying back into feudalism