>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com>
>
>
>Chris Doss wrote:
>>BTW does/did Sachs endorse the Gaidar strategy of
>>freeing prices before breaking up the monopolies 9n
>>1992? That was pretty fucking stupid. If the ensuing
>>hyperinflation had not wiped out people's savings,
>>amiddle class might have started forming in Russia in
>>the early 1990s instead of the early 2000s.
>
>-People have claimed he privately welcomed the inflation and the
>-destruction of savings, as part of the ground-clearing; he denies
>-this furiously.
>
>People claim many things. Any evidence?
Yes. I did a lot of research on Sachs for a piece I never wrote about him. The reason i didn't write it is because I lost the heart for an attack on him since he'd been saying so many good things. His opinions on Latin American debt & development are entirely conventional - and, as Patrick pointed out yesterday, ditto on Africa. But on debt relief, AIDS, and war, he's been good.
But on the Russia thing, several people have said they heard Sachs endorse the inflation. He denies it intensely.
By the way, for a guy who claims to be misquoted a lot, I was a little surprised when he told me he didn't want me to record our interview.
>The original privatization
>through vouchers may have ended up disasterously, but given the corruption
>of party appartachiks, it had intellectual appeal compared to some other
>versions of privatization.
Not really. Anyone who knew anything about Russia should have known that the privatization could have ended up the way it did. Sachs came in like a smarty-pants Harvard economist and just *knew* what had to be done. And it was a disaster. Now he says that he bears no responsibility because the Russians didn't listen to his excellent advice.
>Sachs is now saying incredibly progressive things on global economic
>justice. Unless there is evidence of really bad intent, why not just
>chalk his role in Russia up to intellectual hubris and applaud his present
>progressive stands on key issues?
See above.
Someone who knew him well in Eastern Europe told me his wish was that Sachs would get everything he wanted, but get no credit for it.
Doug