In a sweeping and provocative keynote speech at the 2026 Singapore Economic Review Conference, renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs declared that the era of Western dominance is officially over. Tracing 2,000 years of macroeconomic history, Sachs outlined how Asia is reclaiming its position as the demographic and geopolitical center of the world. He praised China’s unparalleled historical unity and technological ecosystem, predicting that Asia will dictate the 21st-century agenda, particularly regarding green energy and climate mitigation. Furthermore, he bluntly criticized Western foreign policy, emphasizing that the U.S. and Europe must adapt to this irreversible geopolitical realignment.
And by “over” they mean it’ll remain one of the richest parts of the planet with the most advanced financial infrastructure, universally bloated militaries and abundant natural resources, all while still possessing access to the industrial might of the entire Asian continent
Truly, a nightmare for capitalists, an unbearable burden for the rich, literal 1984, the
are truly the most oppressed, oh what woe!But their share of the wealth will drop from 80% to 75%! Just imagine the horror of not being able to afford your 13th yacht because some chinese guy bought it first!
Is Sachs like a Robert Reich type guy? Like a progressive economist but definitely not a Varoufakis or Wolff?
China
According to Stuart Lau and Luanna Muniz writing in Politico, Sachs is a “longtime advocate of dismantling American hegemony and embracing the rise of China.”[53] He said the term “genocide” is mistaken in relation to the persecution of the Uyghurs in China.[20] He has argued for closer relations between the US and China and warned of the danger of tensions between them.[54][55]
Venezuela
A 2019 report by Sachs and Mark Weisbrot, published by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, states that a 31% rise in the number of deaths between 2017 and 2018 was due to the sanctions imposed on Venezuela in 2017 and that 40,000 people in Venezuela may have died as a result.[58] The report states: “The sanctions are depriving Venezuelans of lifesaving medicines, medical equipment, food, and other essential imports.”[58] Weisbrot said the authors “could not prove those excess deaths were the result of sanctions, but said the increase ran parallel to the imposition of the measures and an attendant fall in oil production.”[58]
A United States Department of State spokesperson said, “as the writers themselves concede, the report is based on speculation and conjecture.”[58] Ricardo Hausmann, a Harvard economist who was adviser to then Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó, said the analysis was flawed because it made invalid assumptions about Venezuela based on Colombia: “taking what happened in Colombia since 2017 as a counterfactual for what would have happened in Venezuela if there had been no financial sanctions makes no sense.” Calling it “sloppy reasoning”, Hausmann also said the analysis failed to rule out other explanations or correctly account for PDVSA finances.[59]
Russian invasion of Ukraine
In May 2022, Sachs said that the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in February 2022, would be hard to beat and that Finland’s moves to join NATO would undermine a negotiated peace: “All of this talk of defeating Russia, to my mind, is reckless.”[66] In June 2022, he co-signed an open letter calling for a “ceasefire” in the war, questioning Western countries’ continuing military support for Ukraine.[67]
Sachs has suggested that the U.S. was responsible for the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline. In February 2023, he was invited by the Russian government to address the United Nations Security Council about the topic.[68][20]
In March 2023, a group of 340 economists published an open letter to “address some of the historical misrepresentations and logical fallacies” that they said were contained in Sachs’s arguments regarding the Russo-Ukrainian war.[69][70]
In February 2025 Sachs delivered a speech at the European Parliament, during an event titled ‘The Geopolitics of Peace’ hosted by BSW MEP Michael von der Schulenburg in which he urged Europe to break free from U.S. influence and chart its own foreign policy path.[71][72]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Sachs
Seemingly not a marxist but not wearing the usual blinders.
Sachs has always struck me as a guy who is very badly hiding very firm marxist world analysis demonstrable in falling on the side of anti-imperialism pretty much on every single topic.
I think he’s a good guy that takes a pragmatic position to pretty much everything while doing a generally materialist analysis of the world, and because he’s a good guy he lands on the right side of almost everything when he applies that analytical method.
Basically a “make lives better” dude.
I found a YouTube link in your post. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
