a lot lately (mostly because we’re too lazy to hit the gym). Today is no exception. Read on as Bwog’s economic rivalries expert Zach Kagan reports on William Easterly’s critique of Jeff Sachs”>

William Easterly: ready for battle

In the battle between brains and brawn, Bwog’s been choosing brains a lot lately (mostly because we’re too lazy to hit the gym). Today is no exception. Read on as Bwog’s economic rivalries expert Zach Kagan reports on William Easterly’s critique of Jeff Sachs.

The audience of William Easterly’s talk on Friday was looking forward to a catfight. Easterly, an NYU developmental economist and vocal critic of Columbia’s own Jeffery Sachs, has a reputation for snarkiness, and he did not disappoint. His hour-long talk was peppered with wry jokes and offhand remarks, mostly targeting those who disagreed with him. After one particularly vehement retort, Easterly decided he had had enough and wisecracked, “I reserve the right to be autocratic in this talk, even to professors.” He came to Columbia with the intention of poking the Earth Institute’s proverbial beehive, and succeeded.

The goal of Easterly’s lecture, “Skeptics Vs. Autocrats: The Next Battle in Development” was to dispel the idea of the Benevolent Autocrat – the idea that the economic policies crucial to development are best implemented by a person with complete economic control. Despite recent democratic uprisings in the Middle East, Easterly claimed that the majority of the audience would leave the lecture still firmly believing in the “myth of the Benevolent Autocrat.” Such is its hold on the mind of developmental economists. Easterly argues economists are too willing to accept this notion, and challenges the perception there is a clear link between economic development and autocracy.

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Peter Sterne saw Jeff Sachs IN REAL LIFE! His report from the World Leaders Forum follows.

Yesterday evening, Jeffrey Sachs hosted a panel discussion with an assortment of East African leaders. Despite not knowing exactly who would be on the panel, over 400 undergraduates, grad students, and honored guests crowded into the Low Library Rotunda to hear about the “Challenges of the Drylands.”

“The toughest development challenge on the planet, ” he began, ”are the extremely arid regions,” such as the drylands centered northeastern Kenya and the border with Somalia. This is an area where people herd cattle instead of growing crops and there are more problems than in “the Book of Job, with drought, flood, drought, then epidemic,” not to mention armed conflict. Thankfully, the Earth Institute has started to promote the development of drylands regions in Eastern Africa through the Drylands Initiative which already includes Uganda, Dijibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and Sudan, and will include Eritrea.

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Grant D’Avino explains everything you will ever need to know about green energy. Thanks, Grant!

Financiers, environmentalists, and concerned citizens packed into Faculty House on Thursday night for “Innovative Methods of Green Energy Finance”, a panel discussion sponsored by the Earth Institute. Steven Cohen, Executive Director of the Earth Institute, opened discussion with a simple observation, “Most people are aware of the need to switch from a fossil fuel based economy to one based on renewable energy.” Given this consensus, the moderator mused, why is there need for a discussion of “Innovative Methods of Green Energy Finance”? Shouldn’t the merits of green energy, financially and environmentally, speak for themselves? He argued that they succeed in doing so. But sadly, from his perspective, initial costs inherent in switching to green technologies have clouded the long term vision of investors and stymied those with little cash or credit available. With this paradox in mind, Cohen opened discussion to the night’s panel.

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Match the quote to the speaker.  To give you a break from problem sets, it should be pretty easy, but answers after the jump anyway.  Good luck!

Answers after the jump! Read more…

- Photo via The Earth Institute

It’s not uncommon to see Columbia’s celebrity economist in the news, but three times in one day? First, “the noted economist” tell the Press Trust of India (India’s AP) that India needs to spend more money stimulating the economy to ensure a quick recovery. Sounds kinda like what a Columbia alum just signed.

Not content to merely be interviewed, Sachs also has his own essay on Fortune‘s website, detailing his plan on how to fix the Big 3 auto companies. “The Big 3 are not just another industry segment,” he writes, “they are world-leading organizations that can reassume that role in technology and markets with an appropriate public-private partnership over the coming decade.”

And because writing isn’t enough, he’s also headlining the launch of a new Earth Institute project, GlobalSoilMap.net, today at Casa Italiana. According to the event description, “this initiative, which will map most of the ice-free land surface of the globe over the next five years, will help scientists and policy makers tackle pressing issues like food security, climate change and water scarcity.”

Next up: leaping tall buildings in a single bound. Hey, it’s easier than saving the Dow.

Bwog Lecture Hop Editor Pierce Stanley attended this evening’s Jeffrey Sachs-sponsored Progress and Challenges in the Millennium Villages lecture.

Miller Theater served as a welcome refuge from the torrential downpour levied today on Morningside Heights. This afternoon, a slew of students packed into the theater to hear a report from Earth Institute Director/Professor to the Stars Jeffrey Sachs on the progress of the Millennium Villages project.  Sachs spoke about the brutal realities that many individuals in the villages face on a daily basis, the challenges in continuing and expanding aid for the villages in a time plagued by a troubled worldwide economy, as well as suggesting that the road ahead — specifically with respect to the monetary and human investments required for success — would be quite difficult to traverse. 

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