Jeffrey Sachs is a professor at Columbia University, the Director of The Earth Institute and a Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. From 2002 to 2006, he was Director of the UN Millennium Project. Sachs is also President and Co-Founder of Millennium Promise Alliance, a nonprofit organization aimed at ending extreme global poverty.

As the country focuses on today’s unemployment numbers, noted economist Jeffrey Sachs says short-term policies have set us up for long-term failure—and outlines an escape from this trap.