The fifth chapter begins a five-chapter section in which Sachs provides relatively detailed information about specific countries to make his argument. In Chapter 5 Sachs primarily relays his experience working with Bolivia during a hyperinflation crisis in the 1980s.

Sachs was a professor with no experience advising governments when a Bolivian student in his class asked him to come and help them solve the crisis. He did so, which led to several experiences that shaped his understanding of how economic intervention can succeed.

Sachs’s successful approach to combating hyperinflation was initially condemned by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He came to understand that a primary reason why was the IMF’s alignment with rich countries’ banks and creditors. From that point forward, Sachs continued assisting Bolivia with greater success, ultimately negotiating necessary debt cancelation, assisting with tax reform, and more.

Sachs identifies the importance of geographic forces as one of the major lessons he learned in Bolivia. He also credits this experience with inciting his thinking in terms “clinical economics” in which he was acting much like a doctor making house calls. It was during his experience in Bolivia that Sachs began to work with problems of economic development.