SIPA: School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University

SIPA Faculty in the Media 2009

The faculty of the School of International and Public Affairs are frequently called upon by the news media to provide analysis and commentary on current events. Listed below are a few recent examples of our faculty contributions to reporting on critical public policy issues. If the articles are available to the general public, we have provided a direct link; if not, the link will lead to the publication's homepage.

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Dan Rosen on China's Urbanization and Overcapacity
Wall Street Journal, December 29, 2009
Adjunct professor Dan Rosen writes “ … 2010 could be an even tougher economic year for China. To climb out of the global contraction, Beijing has engineered a property bubble characterized by oversupply in commercial real estate and unsustainable price gains for residential property. The consequences of this will bite in the new year.’

Seth Freeman on Copenhagen and the “Global Trust Problem”
Christian Science Monitor, December 23, 2009
Adjunct professor Seth Freeman writes “The US wants reassurance, China wants autonomy and respect. These concerns aren’t incompatible. The following five solutions can help melt the lack of trust problem.”

Rodolfo de la Garza on Mexican Drug Violence and the U.S. Response
WorldFocus, December 22, 2009
Professor de la Garza said "These organizations take on many forms. They split off. There's competition for new leadership. As long as there's a market, which is fundamentally a U.S. market, there's a demand ... there's a lot of money. On one level, (the Mexican government has) made advances. Is it winning? I don't think so. Not yet."

Steven Cohen on Green Building and Local Government
Los Angeles Times, December 12, 2009
Professor Cohen said "Local government is reality-based. It's right in people's faces. It actually affects what people do day to day."

Steven Cohen on President Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize
The Takeaway, December 10, 2009
Professor Cohen said “You have to give him credit for changing the dialogue and the language that coming out of the United States.”

Steven Cohen on New York City’s Green Buildings Plan
NY1, December 9, 2009
Professor Steven Cohen debates New York City's new green buildings plan with Rohit Aggarwala, director of the Mayor's Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability.

Scott Barrett on the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference
World Focus, December 8, 2009
Professor Barrett said “If success means we have to meet target timetables to meet target emissions, I’m not sure that is success. … Success is defined as if an agreement is reached it changes behavior. It has got to change what countries do and how they operate in regards to climate change.”

Dan Rosen writes “Bond Market Won’t Keep U.S. From Raising Pressure On China”
Wall Street Journal, December 7, 2009
Dan Rosen, adjunct professor at SIPA, writes “In his Congressional re-confirmation hearings on December 3, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that low U.S. interest rates aren’t fueling asset bubbles in the U.S., and if they are doing so in China, that’s not his problem.”

Iran: After the Election
PBS, December 5, 2009
"Everyone wants to know what's next for Iran. Since the June 2009 election, and subsequent protests, the mainstream media has asked, 'Is this the beginning of another Iranian Revolution?'  Prominent Iranian academics gathered Saturday at Columbia University to say, in essence, don't hold your breath. As Columbia Professor Hamid Dabashi has said on repeated occasions, 'This is not another revolution, this is a civil rights movement.'"

Elizabeth Lindenmayer and Josie Lianna Kaye on Mediation in Kenya
Kenya Daily Nation, December 5, 2009
A paper authored by Professor Lindenmayer and Josie Lianna Kaye, “A Choice for Peace? The Story of Forty-One Days of Mediation in Kenya,” was profiled in Kenya’s leading newspaper. The paper goes behind the scenes of the peace process in early 2008, led by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

James Rubin on Democracy and the Obama Administration
Newsweek, December 5, 2009
Professor Rubin writes "...by putting a premium on listening, not lecturing, and by injecting a corrective dose of pragmatism, an impression has been left that America's historic support for the spread of democratic values has diminished."

Guillermo Calvo on Dubai’s Debt Crisis
New York Times, December 1, 2009
Professor Calvo said ““If you catch investors that are leveraged by surprise when something like this happens, then they will have to find liquidity somewhere, and they’ll start liquidating other assets. … It’s a domino effect.”

Gary Sick on Iran’s Plans for New Nuclear Sites
Christian Science Monitor, November 30, 2009
Professor Sick commented on Iran’s plans for ten new nuclear sites, saying “At a minimum, this is a project that would require Iran to mobilize all of its resources in a national effort over many years. In my view, this is a classic Ahmadinejad blustery response to the recent IAEA resolution [and is] the kind of ante-raising that one might expect in a negotiating game of 'chicken.'”

Dan Rosen on Specializing in Asian Business Development
Nightly Business Report on PBS, November 24, 2009
Adjunct Professor Dan Rosen said “Ten years ago, China was essentially insignificant. For the most part, it was something that might happen tomorrow. So, tomorrow has arrived.  And every industry, everywhere on the planet, is being profoundly impacted by what’s happening in the Chinese economy.” Watch the video. | Read the transcript.

Gary Sick on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Latin America Trip
Christian Science Monitor, November 24, 2009
Professor Sick said "He loves the spotlight, and he loves the limelight. Iran is in no position to build a strategic beachhead in Latin America that would somehow threaten the US, certainly not in the next four years," when Ahmadinejad's term is over.

Jeffrey Sachs on “What Makes a Nation Rich?”
Esquire, November 18, 2009
Professor Sachs … “attributes the relative success of nations to geography and weather: In the poorest parts of the world, he argues, nutrient-starved tropical soil makes agriculture a challenge, and tropical climates foment disease, particularly malaria. “

Gary Sick on Iran’s Uranium Enrichment Facility
National Public Radio, November 17, 2009
Professor Sick said “Iran is deliberately slowing down and not enriching as fast as it could to send a political signal, which, if its true, it seems to be completely missed on this side of the Atlantic.”

Scott Barrett on the Copenhagen Climate Summit
Christian Science Monitor, November 5, 2009
Professor Barrett commented on the European Union agreement: "This could lead to the unfortunate situation where Europe blames the US for failure to act. It's unhelpful for countries to point to one another and say this country is doing well and this one is not."

Saeed Shafqat on Militant Attacks in Pakistan
World Focus, November 5, 2009
Professor Shafqat addresses everyday life in Lahore, Pakistan, saying “As a consequence of these recent bombings in the month of October, there is certainly a disturbance in the social life and also day-to-day life. But I would not say they are living in a state of perpetual fear and insecurity.”

James Rubin on Uniting America’s Allies
The New York Times, November 4, 2009
Professor Rubin writes, “Having fulfilled its promise to restore respect and support from America’s allies, the Obama administration should now be reaping the benefits of Western unity as it faces international crises like Afghanistan and Iran. But the unfortunate truth is that where Western unity is sufficient, it is not real. And where it is real, it is not sufficient.”

Stephen Sestanovich on President Obama and Europe
The Guardian, November 2, 2009
Professor Sestanovich said, “For decades after the second world war, the great achievement of U.S. foreign policy was to channel and sometimes ignore European preferences while patiently calming the resentments that followed.”

Guillermo Calvo on Brazil’s Stocks and Securities Tax
Latin Business Chronicle, November 2, 2009
Professor Calvo said, “Several empirical studies show that taxes on capital inflows have little effect on total flows and, therefore, are unlikely to succeed in slowing down the appreciation of Brazil's currency.”

Joseph Stiglitz on the Economy and Nationalizing Banks
Bloomberg,  November 2, 2009
Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz says the world’s biggest economy is suffering because of the U.S. government’s failure to nationalize banks during the financial crisis. “If we had done the right thing, we would be able to have more influence over the banks. They would be lending and the economy would be stronger.”

Jeffrey Sachs on Coal and Climate Change
The Capital Times, November 1, 2009
Professor Sachs writes “There are several reasons for U.S. inaction—including ideology and scientific ignorance—but a lot comes down to one word: coal. No fewer than 25 states produce coal, which not only generates income, jobs, and tax revenue, but also provides a disproportionately large share of their energy.”

Steven Cohen on the 2009 NYC Mayoral Election
New York Times, October 31, 2009
Professor Cohen commented on Michael Bloomberg’s last-minute ad campaign. He said, “It’s unfortunate that it’s sunk to this level. It didn’t have to.” He called the last-minute advertising blitz “intensely nasty.”

Ester Fuchs on the 2009 NYC Mayoral Election
Christian Science Monitor, October 27, 2009
Professor Fuchs said, “The economic crisis and a Republican incumbent would speak to an advantage for a Democratic challenger.”

Richard Betts on Balance in Nuclear Missions
Stars and Stripes, October 25, 2009
Professor Betts said, “It’s a hard sell when you’re talking to the Iranians or North Koreans or Chinese or others about why they shouldn’t be developing even a tiny number of primitive nuclear weapons. That’s going to be the biggest political problem for the civilian leadership in the Obama administration.”

Lincoln Mitchell on Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili
Time, October 26, 2009
Professor Mitchell commented on President Saakashvili’s relationship with the United States, saying, "In some ways, he's the last neocon standing."

Joseph Stiglitz on the Economy and Deflation
USA Today, October 20, 2009
Professor Joseph Stiglitz commended on fears of deflation, saying he believes an extended bout of deflation is not only possible but likely. "I think we are on the verge (of persistent deflation).”

Stuart Gottlieb on U.S. Strategy Toward Afghanistan and Pakistan
New York Times, October 16, 2009
In a letter to the editor, Professor Gottlieb says, “The Obama administration’s desire to find a “middle way” between all-in and all-out in United States strategy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan is certainly understandable. But a policy based primarily on fighting Al Qaeda in Pakistan is fraught with peril.”

Claudia Dreifus Interviews Nobel Prize Winner Carol W. Greider
The New York Times, October 13, 2009
Adjunct professor Claudia Dreifus interviewed Carol W. Greider, one of three women to win a science Nobel Prize in 2009.

Douglas Almond: Heart Disease and Prenatal Flu Exposure
Time, October 12, 2009
Professor Almond comments on his paper that indicates people exposed to the H1N1 strain of influenza while in utero, were at a higher risk for a heart attack later in life. He says, "Why is it that only those born in 1919 showed the spike [in heart disease]? People who were born just before and after the flu should be affected as well."

Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian Speaks at SIPA
The Armenian Mirror-Spectator, October 9, 2009
In a lecture at New York’s Columbia University on Tuesday, September 29, Armenia’s Foreign Minister Dr. Eduard Nalbandian stressed that questions concerning the Nagorno-Karabagh issue and the Armenian Genocide would not be put in jeopardy by the Armenia-Turkey protocols, due to be signed this month.

Jeffrey Sachs in a Webcast Interview on Growth and the Financial Crisis
Wall Street Journal, October 6, 2009
Professor Sachs says alternative energy and infrastructure, health care and high-skilled jobs. talks on where to find jobs and growth.

He also talks about Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Joseph Stiglitz on a Renewed IMF
BBC, October 5, 2009
Bloomberg
Professor Stiglitz talks about the greatly expanded role for the International Monetary Fund. “One of the things that is of great concern to many developing countries, is if the IMF is to become this source they can rely on when they need reserves, it needs to become automatic. They can’t go through an examination process where sometimes they pass and sometimes they fail.”

Lincoln Mitchell on Georgian “Vindication” in War Report
Washington Post, October 4, 2009
Professor Mitchell said, "This is a government which has spent the last year saying very firmly that it didn't start the war. Either the Georgian people will think that their government lied to them, or they will think that the E.U. is against them. Either way, that is not a comfortable position for Georgia."

Arvind Panagariya on “American Hypocrisy”
Bergens Tidende, October 3, 2009
Professor Panagariya addresses the upcoming United Nations Climate Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark. He says “The United States is not in the moral position to require mitigation from developing countries. It is hypocrisy.” (in Norwegian)

Gary Sick on Iran’s Nuclear Program
Christian Science Monitor, October 2, 2009
Professor Sick, commenting on talks in Geneva about Iran’s nuclear program, said  “…by all accounts, instead of being a food fight leading to a total breakdown, the Geneva talks were serious, businesslike, and even cordial… this was a historic moment after thirty years of mutual recriminations and hyperbole.”

Gary Sick on Iran and “Worst Case Assumptions”
New York Times, September 30, 2009
Professor Sick said “In 2002, it seemed utterly naïve to believe Saddam didn’t have a program.” Now, the notion that Iran is not racing to build a bomb is similarly excluded from serious discussion, he said.

Jeffrey Sachs writes “America has passed on the baton”
Financial Times, September 30, 2009
Professor Sachs writes “The G20’s true significance is not in the passing of a baton from the G7/G8 but from the G1, the U.S. Even during the 33 years of the G7 economic forum, the U.S. called the important economic shots. Although the U.S. constitutes only about 20 per cent of the world economy, it has until recently been the indispensable leader, the key to nearly every significant regional military alliance and to global trade, finance and cutting-edge technology.”

Lincoln Mitchell on Georgia and the Breakaway Territories
BBC, September 30, 2009
Professor Mitchell says a recent report on last year’s conflict between Georgia and Russia might be good for Georgia, a country dependent on all the support it can get from the EU and one which has aspirations to join NATO. "This [report] lays out the extent of the problem the country faces.”  He also says it will not "change the European thought [that] Georgia should be a member of NATO." But, he argues, the West still does not want it to happen quite yet.

Joseph Stiglitz on the Financial Crisis and Capitalism
The New Yorker, September 28, 2009
In a Webcast, Professor Stiglitz discusses the financial crisis, the relationship between government and markets, and the future of capitalism around the world. “Currently in America a variety of special interests dictate many aspects of our economic policy, finance, health care and energy policy, and make it very difficult to shape the kinds of policies that would make us more efficient.”

Jeffrey Sachs on the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 25, 2009
Professor Sachs writes "The G-20 forces the U.S. political system to grapple with problems that it has dangerously sidestepped for 30 years. ... The G-20 is important for the United States because the rest of the world is pushing for real answers to these problems."

Gary Sick on Iranian Leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
National Public Radio, September 23, 2009
Professor Sick comments on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to the United Nations: "My view is that Ahmadinejad is not really in charge of anything. I've concluded that talking to him is like talking to a wall."

Scott Barrett on Climate Change Legislation
The Economist, September 23, 2009
Professor Barrett commented on the pace of climate change legislation through the U.S. Congress, calling the climate change dilemma is “biggest collective-action problem in human history.”

Jeffrey Sachs on United Nations’ Climate Change Negotiations
New York Times, September 20, 2009
Professor Sachs commented on the hurdles facing 100 world leaders due to gather in New York for a meeting on climate change. Professor Sachs said “The instinct is a kind of nationalist response that can get it exactly backwards. We should be viewing this as global problem solving, not as global negotiation.”

Elisabeth Lindenmayer on the United Nations and the Global Financial Crisis
Jerusalem Post, September 18, 2009
Professor Lindenmayer, speaking on the global financial crisis and anger toward the U.S., said "The economic supremacy is still there, and I think it's still the strongest country in the world at this point, but the world is evolving. When the world evolves, particularly on the economic side, the center of power shifts."

Kenneth Prewitt on “One Person, One Vote?”
New York Times, September 18, 2009
Commenting on a lawsuit asking the House of Representatives be ordered to increase in size, in order to increase parity, Professor Prewitt says “You may create a more equitable system that’s less governable, and I’m not sure the country comes out ahead.”

Jagdish Bhagwati on President Obama and the Indian PM
Financial Times, September 16, 2009
Professor Bhagwati writes “President Obama’s capitulation to protectionist action against imports of tires from China must be set in the context of his paralysis on free trade, punctuated by rare and tepid references to its advantages. He goes into the Group of 20 meeting in Pittsburgh with a speech where trade is the missing prince in Hamlet, and with this act of protectionism under his belt. This is the abandonment of any pretence at leadership.”

Joseph Stiglitz on the GDP as a Measure of Economic Health
New York Times, September 15, 2009
Financial Times
Bloomberg
A panel co-chaired by Professor Stiglitz presented a report on the gross domestic product and how it is used to measure economic health. Professor Stiglitz said “The main message is to get away from G.D.P. fetishism and to understand the limits to it. There are many aspects of our society that are not covered by G.D.P.”

Joseph Stiglitz on Goldman Sachs’ “Big Rebound”
USA Today, September 15, 2009
Professor Stiglitz said “Goldman's activity is of negative social value. Its recent profits came from trading, which basically amounts to profiting from insider information at the expense of others.”

Robert Jervis on the U.S. War in Afghanistan
Foreign Policy, September 14, 2009
Professor Jervis writes "Most discussion about Afghanistan has concentrated on whether and how we can defeat the Taliban. Less attention has been paid to the probable
consequences of a withdrawal without winning, an option toward which I
incline."

Steven Cohen on Heckling the President
Associated Press, September 11, 2009
Professor Cohen said "Our president is the head of government and also the head of state, the combination of the country and the government. We expect a certain amount of deference to the president, in the same way as we would for the queen. Here, we combine the two roles."

John Coatsworth on Colombian Elections and Term Limits
Chicago Public Radio, September 8, 2009
Dean Coatsworth commented on the Colombian congress, which is considering an amendment to allow President Alvaro Uribe to seek a third term. "The trend has been away from single terms to two term presidencies, and there are a number of countries which have permitted extended terms beyond that. It's very difficult when a president is extremely popular ... to avoid the complex that comes with success. Presidents begin to think of themselves, especially in their second term, as indispensable to the safety and progress of the nation."

Thomas Trebat on Banco Central do Brasil President Henrique Meirelles
Bloomberg, August 31, 2009
Professor Trebat, Executive Director of the Institute of Latin American Studies and the Institute's Center for Brazilian Studies, commented a possible political run by Banco Central do Brasil President Henrique Meirelles. Professor Trebat said “The only one other position that’s suitable to the stature he currently enjoys is the presidency, but that’s not in the cards. Brazil has stronger and younger candidates with more charisma.”

Joseph Stiglitz on the National Debt
Washington Post, August 29, 2009
Professor Stiglitz writes “What really matters is not the size of the deficit but how we're spending our money. If we expand our debt in order to make high-return, productive investments, the economy can become stronger than if we slash expenditures.”

Manning Marable on Martin Luther King’s Legacy
ABC, August 28, 2009
Professor Marable said "I think that there is among most African Americans, a real understanding of the differences between racial advocacy and leadership of national public policy…" on whether blacks had higher expectations from the president because of his race. "Barack Obama is the president of the entire United States...so consequently his focus has to be on all Americans, he's not a black leader."

Richard Betts on the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations With Respect to Intelligence Activities
The Nation, August 26, 2009
Professor Betts said "One of the reasons that the Senate committee got along well (with the White House) is because (White House officials) were really pissed off at the Pike Committee, which they considered partisan and more flaky."

Gary Sick on Possible Sanctions Against Iran
Time, August 19, 2009
Professor Sick said, "If it were possible to choke off the gasoline supply into Iran, the likelihood is that Iran's existing refinery capacity would be used first and foremost to ensure that the needs of the security forces and the regime are taken care of."

Joseph Stiglitz on Capitalism and Latin America
Miami Herald, August 15, 2009
Professor Stiglitz said the International Monetary Fund "...has said that it's going to give money to certain countries, at good rates, without the kind of conditionality that turned recessions into depressions.''

Joseph Stiglitz on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke
Bloomberg, August 11, 2009
Professor Stiglitz said in an interview on Bloomberg TV that a replacement is “something we ought to consider,” without suggesting alternative candidates.

Sharyn O’Halloran on Lowering the Unemployment Rate
MSNBC, August 7, 2009
Professor O’Halloran said, “You need to get money to people who will spend it immediately. (With) something like a tax break, people only spend 40 cents on the dollar. So that’s not an efficient way to get money back into the economy.”

Lincoln Mitchell: “Georgia, One Year Later”
The New York Times, August 6, 2009
Professor Mitchell co-authored an op-ed, saying, “In the year since the war between Russia and Georgia, it has become clear that … Washington must develop distinct policies for Georgia and the other countries on Russia’s periphery.”

Stephen Sestanovich: “What Biden Should Have Said”
The Washington Post, August 6, 2009
Professor Sestanovich writes “In explaining that the United States is not putting itself on a collision course with Russia, Biden could have claimed credit for what has already been accomplished. And to reassure those who think that U.S. policy is long on talk and short on action, he would have to be more candid about what it will take to strengthen the independence of Russia's neighbors.”

Bill Eimicke on Strategic Analysis at FDNY
CNBC, July 30, 2009
Professor Eimicke, director of the Picker Center for Executive Education, is on public service leave as Deputy Commissioner for Strategic Planning and Policy for the Fire Department of New York. He says, “With better information, we might have avoided the loss of firefighters’ lives when the Deutsche Bank building, shuttered for seven years following the twin towers attack, took fire and collapsed. It took this tragedy for us to undertake a rigorous analytic approach to our mission."

Kenneth Prewitt on "The Census Games: Groups Gear Up to Be Counted"
Time, July 29, 2009
Professor Prewitt, former director of the Census Bureau, says "In American society, there's a whole political logic of fairness proportionate to our numbers. This is where that starts."

Lincoln Mitchell on “Georgia’s Counterweight to Power”
The Washington Post, July 24, 2009
Professor Mitchell says, "One could argue that (Georgia ombudsman Sozar Subari) is more dangerous to the Georgian government on the outside than he is on the inside. They see the value of having some democratic structure even if they are not democratic.”

Rudolfo de la Garza on Mexican Immigration to the U.S.
CNN, July 22, 2009
Professor de la Garza, comments on a Pew Hispanic Center study showing Mexican immigration to the United States has dropped sharply since 2005, but the flow of migrants returning to Mexico remains steady. "For those in Mexico, it remains expensive and risky to be smuggled into the United States, especially in a weak economy. Things are worse in Mexico than they are here," de la Garza said. "The job you have here is better than what you have there. If you go back, what do you go back to?"

Guillermo Calvo on the U.S. and Indian Economies
Business Standard (India), July 21, 2009
In an interview Professor Calvo says, “If you talk about the U.S. economy for another 10 years, it would be quite flat, and it might drag the global economy. For India, too, it will be difficult to get back to 9 percent growth in the coming decade.”

Guillermo Calvo on the Economy and Emerging Markets
The Financial Express (India), July 19, 2009
In an interview, Professor Calvo says, “Emerging markets can do much to protect themselves. India has decided to control capital movement, which is not the only thing to do. You can protect yourself also by structuring your financial system in a way that there are no foreign exchange debts.”

Joseph Stiglitz: “The Most Misunderstood Man in America”
Newsweek, July 18, 2009
In a profile of Professor Joseph Stiglitz, Newsweek says he “predicted the global financial meltdown. So why can't he get any respect here at home? While he may be a Nobel laureate, in Washington he's seen as just another economic critic–and not always a welcome one.”

Stuart Gottlieb on the Perils of Post-9/11 Probes
New York Post, July 18, 2009
Professor Gottlieb writes, “In the wake of a nuclear terrorist attack, is it plausible to assume that providing captured suspects with Geneva Convention protections would be a top priority of federal officials? Should we expect strict privacy rights to trump urgent efforts by law-enforcement and intelligence agencies to gather information necessary to avert another explosion? Wouldn't we want the president to authorize a host of creative, covert policies aimed at protecting the nation against a ruthless covert enemy?”

Joseph Stiglitz on Inflation-Targeting as a Response to the Economic Crisis
Mail & Guardian, News 24, BusinessDay, Bloomberg, July 10, 2009
On a visit to South Africa, Professor Stiglitz said, "I'm very strongly opposed to rigid inflation targeting. The financial crisis is in part as a result of central banks focusing on inflation. You have to balance it with other concerns."

Gary Sick on the Iranian Election
CBS News, PBS, USA Today, Time, The Wall Street Journal, ABC News, Council on Foreign Relations, The Washington Post, The Economist, National Public Radio
Professor Gary Sick, National Security Council expert on Iran in the Ford, Carter and Reagan administrations, comments in multiple publications and outlets on the disputed re-election of Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Joseph Stiglitz on the U.S. Pullout from Iraqi Cities
Los Angeles Times, July 2, 2009
Professor Stiglitz, with co-author Linda J. Bilmes, writes “The conflict that began in 2003 is far from over for us, and the next chapter–confronting a Taliban that reasserted itself in Afghanistan while the U.S. was sidetracked in Iraq–will be expensive and bloody.”

Joseph Stiglitz on “American-style Capitalism”
Vanity Fair, July 1, 2009
Professor Stiglitz writes, “While there may be no winners in the current economic crisis, there are losers, and among the big losers is support for American-style capitalism. This has consequences we’ll be living with for a long time to come.”

Steven Cohen on S.C. Governor Mark Sanford’s “Love Factor”
The Washington Post, June 28, 2009
Steven Cohen said "He was hardly Client 9. But it's credibility more than anything else. The issue is whether a public official levels with his constituents. And disappearing for nearly a week is not leveling with your constituents."

Robert Jervis on President Obama and Iran
NY Daily News, June 26, 2009
Professor Jervis said "Our friends in the region are certainly torn. They don't like Ahmadinejad, they want to see Iran's wings clipped ... but on the other hand they don't want to see precedents of American meddling in internal affairs.”

Jeffrey Sachs on a New Generation of Problem Solvers
The Chronicle of Higher Education, June 26, 2009
Professor Sachs writes, with co-author John W. McArthur, “…at a time when so many of the world's most-challenging issues require solutions drawing from across academic and professional disciplines, colleges remain overwhelmingly focused on single-discipline studies. While specialists are still essential, and nobody can master all the relevant interconnected areas of expertise, vastly more professionals should have basic knowledge spanning crucial areas like natural science, health science, engineering, public policy, and management.

Joseph Stiglitz on Wall Street and New Graduates
ABC News, June 18, 2009
Professor Stiglitz said Wall Street has become a big casino with an enormous amount of excess risk. “We've allowed these [financial] institutions to get so big that they're too big not only to fail, but too big to be managed and almost too big to be saved."

Gary Sick on U.S. Diplomacy in Iran
Time, June 15, 2009
Professor Sick addresses U.S. diplomat Dennis Ross’s dialogue with Iran. "He favors a pro forma attempt at negotiations with Iran, followed by far more severe sanctions or even military action if and when they fail."

Douglas Almond on Boy Bias among Asian Births
The New York Times, June 14, 2009
Professor Almond’s paper “Son-biased Sex Ratios in the 2000 United States Census,” with co-author Lena Edlund, was featured in the New York Times. The article notes, “…a number of experts expressed surprise to see evidence that the preference for sons among Asian-Americans has been so significantly carried over to this country.”

Shang-Jin Wei on the Myth of “Made in China”
National Public Radio, June 11, 2009
Professor Wei, along with Robert Koopman and Zhi Wang of the U.S. International Trade Commission, writes: “Over the last 20 years, supply chains have fragmented across the globe–with one part made here, and another made there. Rarely is any one product made in any one country … A tag like ‘Made in China, Vietnam, the United States, Japan, and China again,’ might be more apt.”

Robert Barnett on China and the Dalai Lama
The New York Times, June 7, 2009
Professor Barnett commented on the competition between the current Dalai Lama’s followers-in-exile and China, on the selection of the 15th Dalai Lama. “It’s a huge but ultra-critical issue, with no clear outcome or solution except one: trouble,” said Robert Barnett, a Tibet scholar at Columbia University. “It is going to end up with two Dalai Lamas and thus with long-running conflict, unless the Chinese agree to a diplomatic solution pretty soon.”

Joseph Stiglitz on President Obama’s Response to the Financial Crisis
Bloomberg, June 7, 2009
Professor Joseph Stiglitz said: Business opposition to Obama’s plans “is the same sort of thing we heard in the first year of the Clinton administration, and that marked the beginning of an investment boom.”

Bill Eimicke on Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor
The New York Times, June 5, 2009
Bill Eimicke, director of SIPA’s Picker Center and former NY state housing “czar,” addressed Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s tenure on the board of SONYMA, the state mortgage agency. He said, “She was the youngest board member but extremely involved in the details.”

Richard Robb writes “Debt and Decision-Making at General Motors”
Forbes, June 3, 2009
Professor Robb writes, “No cost-benefit calculation could justify pouring billions into "saving" 30,000 jobs in an industry that needs only to shrink. No, this is about politics. Michigan is a swing state, and, maybe more important, it was time for the administration to bail out a business not on Wall Street.”

Dorian Warren on President Obama and Reverend Al Sharpton
Politico, June 2, 1009
Professor Warren said, “It doesn’t surprise me that (President) Obama would be trying to maintain relationships within the traditional civil rights movement and reaching out to Sharpton. He is a respected civil rights leader who represents a legitimate constituency: hundreds of thousands of black people. It’s a smart move.”

Joseph Stiglitz on the Financial Crisis
Bloomberg, May 29, 2009
Professor Stiglitz said in a Web cast that “a greater division in U.S. society could result from widening income gaps between union workers and management.”

Robert Lieberman on “What to Read on Lobbying”
Foreign Affairs, May 26, 2009
Professor Lieberman writes, “Most commentators fall into one of two opposing camps: those who believe that group demands distort politics and policymaking by pursuing narrow private interests at the expense of a broader public interest, and those who believe the public interest itself is simply an aggregation of group interests.”

Lincoln Mitchell on Russian-Georgian Relations
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, May 26, 2009
Professor Mitchell says Russia’s strategy mostly will be to keep the pressure on and let the political situation in Georgia deteriorate. "Russia has a pretty big margin of error in Georgia now.”

Arvind Panagariya on Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
The Wall Street Journal, May 26, 2009
Professor Panagariya wrote, “The media around the world has reported with some sense of amazement that Manmohan Singh is the first full-term Indian prime minister to be returned to power since 1962, and implied that this re-election gives Mr. Singh a mandate for economic reform. But a more meaningful historical parallel exists between his return and that of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1999.”

Arvind Panagariya on India’s Growth Rate
The New York Times, May 25, 2009
Professor Panagariya said India was likely to climb back to its pre-crisis growth rate of 8 to 9 percent a year. “And if the reforms get done, I have no doubt they can get to 11, 12 percent. The gap with China will be closed. It’s an issue of time.”

Kofi Annan on the Sri Lankan Civil War
Associated Press, May 21, 2009
Former U.N. Secretary-General and SIPA Global Fellow Kofi Annan offered advice for Sri Lanka's government: Reach out and reconcile with the Tamil minority and heal the wounds from the 25-year civil war. Annan was recently named SIPA’s first Global Fellow.

Stephen Sestanovich on “Cold War Leftovers”
The New York Times, May 19, 2009
Professor Sestanovich writes, “No new administration is done with its foreign-policy housecleaning until it confronts that cold war fossil, the Jackson-Vanik amendment. First enacted in 1974, it made normal trade relations with the Soviet Union contingent on free emigration. Russia has now allowed such freedom for years, and a law that once embodied the importance of human rights in East-West relations remains in force merely to provide Congress with leverage in trade negotiations.”

Steven Cohen on Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Campaign Spending
The New York Times, May 18, 2009
Despite a commanding lead in the polls, Mayor Bloomberg has spent $18.7 million on his re-election campaign, nearly twice as much as he had spent at this point in the 2005 race, according to documents released on Friday. “It’s a shock-and-awe approach,” said Professor Cohen. “He’s making it very hard for the opposition to gain any traction.”

Arvind Panagariya on India’s National Elections
World Focus, May 18, 2009
Professor Arvind Panagariya discusses the Indian elections, the decisive victory of the Congress Party and what the U.S. and Pakistan can expect from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his second term in office.

Lincoln Mitchell on Georgia’s Mutiny Mystery
Foreign Policy, May 6, 2009
Professor Mitchell writes: “Although Georgia's chances of getting into NATO in the near future are significantly less than what some in Tbilisi, and Washington, would like, it's certainly not out of the question that Russia would jump at the chance to play a disruptive and destructive role in Georgia.”

Jeffrey Sachs at the Pen World Voices Festival
WNYC, May 4, 2009
Professor Sachs touches on the potential of the swine flu, the federal bailouts and several basic themes of his book Common Wealth.

Joseph Stiglitz on the Financial Crisis
The New York Times, May 1, 2009
Professor Stiglitz, believes there is a better way to deal with the crisis. He says, “Banks made bad loans, and the question is: who is going to pay for those losses? It is almost a zero-sum game: the government or the bondholders?”

Robert Lieberman on Race and President Obama
El Mercurio, April 26, 2009
In an interview with Chile's largest newspaper, Professor Lieberman said, "President Obama’s race has made no difference in his governing, which reflects the themes that he has been handling, like the economy or international relations. He hasn’t faced questions in which race represents a problem or impediment for him.” (in Spanish)

Stephen Sestanovich on President Obama’s Relations with Congress
The Washington Post, April 24, 2009
After visiting the State Department with 30 students, Professor Sestanovich wrote, “What the president and his team really need is a strategy for dealing with Congress.”

Joseph Stiglitz on the Breakup of Big Banks
The Wall Street Journal, April 22, 2009
Professor Joseph Stiglitz said, "We have little to lose, and much to gain, by breaking up these behemoths, which are not just too big to fail, but also too big to save and too big to manage."

Jeffrey Sachs on the Cost of “Going Green”
ABC News, April 22, 2009
Professor Jeffrey Sachs said on ABC’s World News, “This is precisely the time to invest in solutions because those investments are actually going to help us get out of the downturn that we're in.”

Gary Sick on Why Iran is Hungry for Business with the U.S.
BusinessWeek, April 22 2009
Professor Gary Sick, an expert on Iran, says, "(President) Obama has prompted Iranians to have an open debate about the relationship they want to have with the U.S."

Stuart Gottlieb on Torture vs. War
The New York Times, April 21, 2009
In a letter to the editor, Stuart Gottlieb calls for: “the creation of a special national security court system, which balances the necessity of keeping dangerous terrorists off the streets, with a legitimate process to determine who those individuals are.”

Steven Cohen on Earth Day
USA Today, April 20, 2009
Steven Cohen, Director of Program in Environmental Science and Policy, said "When Earth Day started, it was like a national day of protest. There was a counterculture dimension to it.”

Gary Sick on Religious Radicals and the Financial Crisis
Newsweek, April 20, 2009
Professor Gary Sick, an expert on Iran, predicts the president of Iran will suffer in the coming election. He says, "People will be spending more time and attention on survival and economic issues than on religious ideology.”

John Coatsworth on President Obama and the Summit of the Americas
BBC, April 19, 2009
SIPA Dean John Coatsworth, an expert on Latin America, commented on President Barack Obama's trip to Trinidad for the Summit of the Americas. He said, "I think his aim is to change the tone of U.S.- Latin American relations and escape without making any important commitments."

Jeffrey Sachs at the 2009 Montreal Millennium Summit
The Globe and Mail, April 16, 2009
Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute, says “These issues that we're facing right now are of such complexity and such weight for the future of the planet and global society that we have to be very good at communicating scientific expertise to the public. Our policy-makers and politicians need to be able to absorb this information. They need to embrace, not shun science.”

Montreal Gazette, April 16, 2009
"Our financial industry took over our government rather than our government regulating our financial industry.”

John Coatsworth and Jeffrey Sachs on the Global Center in Amman
The Christian Science Monitor, April 13, 2009
SIPA Dean John Coatsworth says, "One thing that local centers can do is to work with NGOs, activists, and civil society to help them focus their concerns.”

Joseph Stiglitz on the Dollar and the SDR
Time, April 9, 2009
Professor Joseph Stiglitz says, “The G-20 decision to create $250 billion in new SDRs (special drawing right) marks a "major step" toward establishing the SDR as a global reserve currency.”

Richard Betts on NATO’s Identity Crisis
The New York Times, April 9, 2009
Professor Richard Betts is quoted from his article in The National Interest, describing NATO’s identity crisis, with three competing functions and self images. He calls them “a potentially corrosive mix, particularly as they relate to Russia,” with the potential to further divide the United States from its European allies.

Jeffrey Sachs: Homegrown Aid
The New York Times, April 8, 2009
Professor Jeffrey Sachs writes in an op-ed: “Rather than have Washington decide the kind of aid each country will receive, the recipient countries should be invited to prepare plans and budgets that would be reviewed by independent experts.”

Stuart Gottlieb on Obama’s Drone-strike Counterterrorism Policy
Foreign Policy, April 7, 2009
Stuart Gottlieb writes: “…with tensions rising in Pakistan and around the Muslim world over the brutality and high civilian death toll from these targeted assassination attacks, the United States' day of reckoning regarding this policy may soon arrive as well.”

Jeffrey Sachs: “The Gasp is Worse Than You Think”
Financial Times, April 7, 2009
Professor Jeffrey Sachs writes, “The Geithner-and-Summers Plan (Gasp) to buy toxic assets from the banks is rightly scorned as an unnecessary give-away by virtually every independent economist who has looked at it.”

Robert Jervis on North Korea’s Test Rocket Launch
NY Daily News, April 5, 2009
Professor Robert Jervis, expert in international politics and security policy, said “With everything else on his plate, this is something Obama would rather not have to deal with, but he has to do it.”

Sharyn O’Halloran on the G-20 and the Economic Crisis
Ríkisútvarpið RUV (Icelandic National Broadcasting Service), March 30, 2009
Professor Sharyn O’Halloran says, “...they have done well in coordinating monetary policy, interest rate lowering and so on, but they have been less effective in coordinating fiscal response to the economic crisis.” (In Icelandic)

Stephen Sestanovich: “Ask Not What Europe Can Do for You”
Foreign Policy, March 2009
Professor Stephen Sestanovich, expert on Soviet and East European studies, international studies and foreign policy writes, “For any U.S. president, the trick to dealing with Europe is to politely ignore its advice.”

Arvind Panagariya on High Growth, Low Votes in India
BBC News, March 27, 2009
Arvind Panagariya, Jagdish Bhagwati Professor of Indian Political Economy, writes "...if the electorate goes by the contribution the present government has made to the accelerated growth in incomes, it would hand the latter its worst defeat."

Jagdish Bhagwati on the European Economy and the Financial Crisis
Bloomberg News, March 26, 2009
Professor Bhagwati appeared on a panel at the 7th European Business Summit that included European Central Bank Vice President Lucas Papademos, Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy and European Union Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen. He says "The U.S. is in a particularly difficult situation to meet this kind of crisis, which is very deep-seated, compared to the Europeans where the safety net amounts to a hammock."

Arvind Panagariya on Americans Relocating to India
The Christian Science Monitor, March 26, 2009
Arvind Panagariya, Jagdish Bhagwati Professor of Indian Political Economy, comments on IBM offering workers an incentive to move overseas. He says "Such a massive technological revolution will cause the borders to blur, if not disappear."

Joseph Stiglitz on China and the Economic Crisis
NBC Nightly News, March 20, 2009
In an interview in Beijing, Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz lauded China’s handling of the global economic crisis. Professor Stiglitz said, “There’s every reason to believe that China will be successful in not only stimulating its economy, reducing the downturn from what it otherwise would have been, but that it will use substantial parts of the stimulus to address some of the long-standing needs.”

Rashid Khalidi on Sowing Crisis in the Middle East
The New York Times, March 15, 2009
In a review of Rashid Khalidi’s book Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Hegemony in the Middle East, The New York Times quotes Professor Khalidi: … just as the threat of Communism was wildly exaggerated 50 years ago, so, these days, “the global war on terror is in practice an American war in the Middle East against a largely imaginary set of enemies.”

Arvind Panagariya on Credit, Protectionism and the G-20
Forbes, March 14, 2009
Professor Arvind Panagariya writes: “If history is any guide, measures to roll back creeping protection and move the process of trade liberalization forward ought to be high on (the G-20’s) agenda.

Sharyn O’Halloran on the Credit Crisis
WCBS-TV, March 8, 2009
As the recession deepens, the slide on Wall Street continues. The government is “not going to the heart of the problem, which is the credit crisis,” said Professor Sharyn O’Halloran. “You have to build up confidence for lenders to lend to each other.”

Robbie Barnett on the 50th Anniversary of the Tibet Uprising
The Economist, Bloomberg News, The Christian Science Monitor, WCBS-TV, NBC Nightly News, March 2009
China's tactics for quelling civil unrest may backfire during the 50th anniversary of the uprising in Tibet. Professor Robbie Barnett says in a podcast, “The history of Tibetan protest seems to be the unexpected small event that spirals into major unrest.”

Rashid Khalidi’s Balancing Act
Chronicle of Higher Education, March 6, 2009
Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies and Literature, courts controversy with his Palestinian advocacy. Professor Khalidi says: “Israel was established in 1948, a source of great joy for some people. But for Palestinians, that was a disaster in terms of their own history."

Mahmoud Mamdani on Sudan’s President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir
National Public Radio, March 5, 2009
The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir. He is accused of crimes against humanity in the Darfur region. But some warn that the president's arrest could dismantle an already fragile peaceful situation. Professor Mahmoud Mamdani explains what's at stake in Sudan.

Richard K. Betts on the Three Faces of NATO
The National Interest, March 2, 2009
Professor Richard K. Betts, director of SIPA’s International Security Policy Program, says, “The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is one of the most successful alliances of all time, but after the cold war and the successful completion of its mission, NATO suffered an identity crisis.”

Joseph Stiglitz on Nationalizing U.S. Banks
Nightly Business Report on PBS, February 20, 2009
Professor Joseph Stiglitz says, “The banks are not maximizing the interest of the owners, i.e. the American taxpayers. They're maximizing their interests of their management, of their own shareholders.”

Dean John Coatsworth: President Obama, Hugo Chavez and Venezuela
Newsweek, February 19, 2009
Dean John Coatsworth, expert on U.S.-Latin American relations, says President Obama has a chance to “put aside the record of American intervention, or interventionism, with which he is not personally associated.”

Jagdish Bhagwati on Barack Obama and Protectionism
Financial Times, February 6, 2009
Professor Jagdish Bhagwati authored an editorial saying President Obama “stepped up to the plate on the Buy American provisions in the stimulus package, leaving little doubt as to where his sentiments, and his policy preferences, lie.”

Jeffrey Sachs on Stimulus Plan
The Washington Post, February 1, 2009
Columbia University’s Jeffrey Sachs labels the plan “an astounding mishmash of tax cuts, public investments, transfer payments and special treats for insiders.”

Arvind Panagariya on India’s Financial Secret Weapon
Foreign Policy, January 2009
Professor Arvind Panagariya, expert in Indian economics, writes: “As India toasts its continued economic success, it would be unwise to overlook the careful regulation of financial markets that at least partially protected it from the worst effects of the financial crisis.”

Joseph Stiglitz on Nationalizing Banks
The New York Times, January 28, 2009
Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist at Columbia University said that “the private sector doesn’t have the proper incentives to fix the banking system.” The taxpayers “have put all the capital into most of the banks,” but the banks “are not running them for our interest,” he said.

Robbie Barnett on Panchen Lama
The Washington Post, January 28, 2009
“The Panchen Lama has become increasingly important as a symbolic figure since his death because Beijing’s policies increasingly seem focused on undoing everything he struggled for,” said Robbie Barnett, a Tibetologist at Columbia University.

Joseph Stiglitz on Obama Carrying Weight of Economic Trauma
Bloomberg News, January 20, 2009
“Nothing that Obama can do can undo the damage quickly,” says Columbia University economist and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz. “The downturn will be much deeper than it otherwise would have been” because of the missteps of President George W. Bush’s administration, Stiglitz said.

Steven Cohen on End of Baby Boomer Era
The Associated Press, January 11, 2009
“Obama is one of those people who was raised post-Vietnam and really came of age in the ‘80s,” says Steven Cohen, professor of public administration at Columbia University. “It’s a huge generational change, and a new kind of politics. He is trying to be a problem-solver by not getting wrapped up in the right-left ideology underlying them.”

Rashid Khalidi on Gaza Crisis
New York Post, January 10, 2009
“Unless the fundamental conditions are changed—and they have not changed in the past 19 years, they have gotten worse—it’s not even worth talking about a peace process,” says Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies, Columbia University.

Jagdish Bhagwati on Barack Obama and Trade Issues
Financial Times, January 9, 2009
Professor Jagdish Bhagwati authored an editorial saying, “…the US president-elect's eloquent silence on trade issues—and his failure to balance his protectionist appointments with powerful trade proponents—require that we abandon these illusions and sound an alarm.”

Jeffrey Sachs on Asia Tapping Reserves
The Associated Press, January 7, 2009
Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute and an advisor to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said, Asia should seize the global financial crisis as an opportunity to invest in housing, environmental cleanup, health and other development needs.

Joseph Stiglitz on Tax Cuts and TARP
CNBC, January 19, 2009
SIPA faculty member Joseph Stiglitz appeared on CNBC to discuss the merits of tax cuts vs. spending () and Congressman Barney Frank’s proposals for TARP funds (). Professor Stiglitz: “Stimulus tax cuts could be sinkhole as bad as troubled TARP.”

Jeffrey D. Sachs: Privatization and the Russian Death Rate
The New York Times, January 15, 2009
A study published online in The Lancet, an independent medical journal, says privatization increased the Russian death rate. Jeffrey D. Sachs, Professor of Sustainable Development and Director of the Earth Institute, disputed the study’s findings, saying “the definition of success and failure had nothing to do with rapid or not rapid” privatization.

Joseph Stiglitz on Financial System Regulation
Wall Street Journal, January 14, 2009
Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz says the lack of regulatory changes has hampered the efforts of U.S. policymakers to free up credit markets. "TARP has failed partly because of the failure to do anything about regulation," said Professor Stiglitz.

Jeffrey D. Sachs: The Case for Bigger Government
Time, January 8, 2009
Jeffrey D. Sachs, Professor of Sustainable Development and Director of the Earth Institute, writes: “We need a sensible strategy that deals with the present crisis while preparing for the future. We need more government, and to pay for it we'll need to raise taxes relative to GDP over time.”

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