John Kenneth Galbraith, 97, Dies; Economist, Diplomat and Writer

[TacticalPeek]

John Kenneth Galbraith, 97, Dies; Economist, Diplomat and Writer

By HOLCOMB B. NOBLE and DOUGLAS MARTIN
Published: April 30, 2006

John Kenneth Galbraith, the iconoclastic economist, teacher and diplomat and an unapologetically liberal member of the political and academic establishment he often needled in prolific writings for more than half a century, died yesterday at a hospital in Cambridge, Mass. He was 97.

Mr. Galbraith lived in Cambridge and at an "unfarmed farm" near Newfane, Vt. His death was confirmed by his son J. Alan Galbraith.

Mr. Galbraith was one of the most widely read authors in the history of economics; among his 33 books was "The Affluent Society" (1958), one of those rare works that forces a nation to re-examine its values. He wrote fluidly, even on complex topics, and many of his compelling phrases — among them "the affluent society," "conventional wisdom" and "countervailing power" — became part of the language.

An imposing presence, lanky and angular at 6 feet 8 inches tall, Mr. Galbraith was consulted frequently by national leaders, and he gave advice freely, though it may have been ignored as often as it was taken. Mr. Galbraith clearly preferred taking issue with the conventional wisdom he distrusted.

more
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/30/obituaries/30galbraith.html?hp&ex=1146369600&en=3cd7c22452f9bc04&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[babylonsister]

1. Wow. I remember him throughout my life. RIP-97! Good for him! nt

[flamingyouth]

2. RIP

A life well lived.

[joemurphy]

3. He was a brilliant man. He'll be missed.

"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."

- John Kenneth Galbraith

[TacticalPeek]

6. Great quote.

Puts it all in a nutshell.

:patriot:

[Martin Eden]

34. That quote is worthy of a sig line.

One of the true giants has left us.

[Thaddeus]

4. If we lived in a more enlightened society

his works would be read and known by all Americans.

[oscar111]

5. JOBS FOR ALL site advisor, too

he was great. see sig link

[Robbien]

7. The Mother Jones story this week by By James K. Galbraith, any relation?

The Predator State: The US Government?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x207121

The article was outstanding. Wonder if the two Galbraiths are related.

[kurth]

9. James K. Galbraith is his son

"The real economic cost of Bush's empire building is twofold: It diverts attention from pressing economic problems at home and it sets the United States on a long-term imperial path that is economically ruinous."
- James K. Galbraith

[dweller]

10. MotherJones bio of JK Galbraith

http://www.motherjones.com/radio/2006/03/galbraith_bio.html

Don't Turn the World over to the Bankers
http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/ffd/2003/05bankers.htm

current article: LEARNING TO LOVE INFLATION
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE2DD1E38F931A35757C0A96F948260


i see you have an answer above.
dp

[Robbien]

13. Thanks for the links

No wonder the Predator essay had such an effect on me. Such a distinquished family.

[kurth]

8. "There is no hope for liberals

if they seek only to imitate conservatives, and no function either."
- John Kenneth Galbraith

[northzax]

11. everyone should read the Affluent Society

it really is a classic. You will be missed, JKG.

[chookie]

12. RIP

We have lost a great American.

[daleo]

15. For the record, he was born and raised in Canada

So both countries can justifiably claim a hand in producing this great man. His essay "The Scotch" is an amusing account of his early life in Ontario.

[Lisa]

44. I'm just laughing over this University of Guelph tribute to him ...

http://www.uoguelph.ca/mediarel/2006/04/u_of_g_grad_joh.html


Note that they are careful to avoid mentioning that Dr. Galbraith described his alma mater, the Ontario Agricultural College (U of G's predecessor) as "the cheapest and possibly the worst in the English-speaking world"
http://education.guardian.co.uk/academicexperts/story/0,1392,680767,00.html


(I went to this school too! And in times of trouble, students would console themselves, thinking that if the great Professor Galbraith had thought it was a dump, the blame couldn't be all on them!)

[daleo]

45. The Guardian article was excellent

My local Canwest rag had an obit by the Daily Telegraph, so this was a nice antidote. Galbraith had quite the way with words, so I am sure his opinion of U of Guelph has more than a bit of exaggeration in it.

[Lisa]

47. well, the school has grown quite a bit since the OAC days ...

He went there back in the 1920s, when it was an agricultural college! But I think it's good for universities to be reminded of their humble origins now and then. I'm a Guelph grad, and I grin every time I think about Galbraith. I'm now starting to wonder if the person who wrote the U of G obit knew very well about that loving little barb from Galbraith ... those asides about how they totally agree with his views on education, and appreciate all his support over the years!

[lovuian]

14. He was A TRUE ECONOMIST!!! not like the economists

of these times...

[Fenris]

16. One of the greatest liberal minds to ever grace the earth.

That Galbraith is less well known than Friedman is a testament to how fucked up this country's economic philosophy is.

[Jack Rabbit]

17. RIP

Portait of John Kenneth Galbraith from Harvard University.

[Kurovski]

18. K&R

RIP.

[xchrom]

19. farewell, sir

you will be missed.

[rodeodance]

20. His son has a GREAT article--'The predator state' this week-the Nation

http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2006/05/predator_state.html
> James K. Galbraith: 'The predator state'
> Posted on Saturday, April 29 @ 09:17:06 EDT
> This article has been read 1117 times. Enron, Tyco, WorldCom... and the U.S. government?
>
> James K. Galbraith, Mother Jones
>
> WHAT IS THE REAL NATURE of American capitalism today? Is it a grand national adventure, as politicians and textbooks aver, in which markets provide the framework for benign competition, from which emerges the greatest good for the greatest number? Or is it the domain of class struggle, even a "global class war," as the title of Jeff Faux's new book would have it, in which the "party of Davos" outmaneuvers the remnants of the organized working class?
>
> The doctrines of the "law and economics" movement, now ascendant in our courts, hold that if people are rational, if markets can be "contested," if memory is good and information adequate, then firms will adhere on their own to norms of honorable conduct. Any public presence in the economy undermines this. Even insurance--whether deposit insurance or Social Security--is perverse, for it encourages irresponsible risktaking. Banks will lend to bad clients, workers will "live for today," companies will speculate with their pension funds; the movement has even argued that seat belts foster reckless driving. Insurance, in other words, creates a "moral hazard" for which "market discipline" is the cure; all works for the best when thought and planning do not interfere. It's a strange vision, and if we weren't governed by people like John Roberts and Sam Alito, who pretend to believe it, it would scarcely be worth our attention.
>
> The idea of class struggle goes back a long way; perhaps it really is "the history of all hitherto existing society," as Marx and Engels famously declared. But if the world is ruled by a monied elite, then to what extent do middle-class working Americans compose part of the global proletariat? The honest answer can only be: not much. The political decline of the left surely flows in part from rhetoric that no longer matches experience; for the most part, American voters do not live on the Malthusian margin. Dollars command the world's goods, rupees do not; membership in the dollar economy makes every working American, to some degree, complicit in the capitalist class.

[xchrom]

21. wow -- thank you

great article!

[Martin Eden]

35. Thanks -- I liked this quote from the article:

Predators compete not by following the rules but by breaking them. They take the business-school view of law: Rules are not designed to guide behavior but laid down to define the limits of unpunished conduct.

[Le Taz Hot]

22. During the Clinton witch hunts, he was asked by a reporter

about Clinton's "morality" or some such nonsense. I'm paraphrasing dreadfully but his response was something like: "Let's look at history. Pol Pot, who was responsible for the deaths of millions of his countrymen, by all accounts, was a devoted and faithful family man. On the other hand, Martin Luther King, undeniably one of the greatest leaders and humanitarians of all time, was known to have been unfaithful to his wife. Now, which one was more beneficial to society? We can only conclude that fidelity is hardly an accurate barometer of whether or not a person is beneficial or detrimental to society."

[Gormy Cuss]

23. Link to Boston globe obit

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/obituaries/articles/2006/04/30/john_kenneth_galbraith_writer_economist_dies/

Random Galbraith fact: Julia Child was his neighbor in Cambridge. Both lived near Harvard Divinity School.

[brook]

26. Another random fact:

When in Newfane, Ambassador Galbraith frequently lunched at the Four Columns Inn where he engaged in lively recipe exchanges with the owner.

I'm hard-pressed to think of a contemporary figure with the curiousity, humanity and intellect of this giant among men...RIP, sir.

[Gormy Cuss]

27. That is a great random fact.

I used to see Julia Child in Cambridge (shopping, of all things) but never ran into JKG.

[Coventina]

24. Godspeed, JKG.

:patriot:

I have to admit, I was surprised to hear he was still alive.

:blush:

I sort of assumed he had already passed on.

[1932]

25. Everyone who considers him or herself a liberal should read:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0374281688.01._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_AA240_SH20_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0374281688/qid=1146413176/sr=12-2/103-0913486-6351016?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

[mahatmakanejeeves]

28. World's Tallest Canadian Economist

About five years ago, I went to a parochial school rummage sale. At the end, there was a lot of unsold stuff left over. The people in charge said to take what you wanted, but they also asked that you help them by carrying cartons of books and whatnot up from the basement cafeteria where the sale was being held to the dumpster in the parking lot. While so assisting, I saw a Galbraith book in a trash can and pulled it out. It had been autographed by Galbraith. I still have it, of course. It will never go on eBay.

[Autonomy]

33. holy crap, nice find! nt

[kineneb]

29. The man who helped save the nation during the Depression

FDR was afraid that social unrest would tear the US apart, and asked JKG to assist in developing policies to prevent a revolution. I remember hearing interviews where he discussed this. He was an advisor to most of the Dem. presidents in the 20th century (after FDR), in formal or informal capacities.

RIP, Mr. Galbraith. We will miss you. :cry:

[Vidar]

46. Didn;t realize that. Thank you.

[LouisianaLiberal]

30. He was a true gentleman.

And his death is, in a way, the end of an era.

As a teen in the seventies, he and Bertrand Russell were the two men I latched onto as heroes. In my little suburban life there were no gentleman scholars to emulate, and each time he appeared with Buckley was an event. I probably understood less than half of what he said, but it was evident that he was an educated man of compassion and dignity.

There are so few men of his caliber left.

[Bhaisahab]

31. Mr. Galbraith had a very special relation with India

from: http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1522/15220790.htm

Beyond a doubt, Galbraith was one of the best U.S. Ambassadors India has seen. His lectures to university audiences in India deserve to be published in book form, not to forget the book Indian Painting, which he co-authored with M. S. Randhawa. He showed sound judgment on international affairs, bar some issues. A letter of April 3, 1961 he wrote while in Washington D.C. cautioned Kennedy against "the surviving adventurism in the Administration." He had heard of the impending invasion of Cuba from Chester Bowles and was greatly exercised. The letter had no effect on Kennedy who had to face the tirades that followed the Bay of Pigs disaster.

Galbraith got along as well with Nehru as anyone in his situation could. "My first talk with Nehru was not quite so easy - I am not entirely at home in his presence and I rather wonder if anyone is. He does not take kindly to argument." Even so devoted a biographer of Nehru as S. Gopal records testimonies of persons who had little in common with one another like Pablo Neruda, Malcolm Muggeridge and Hugh Gaitskell, himself a man of outstanding urbanity, but who found Nehru inordinately vain. Zhou Enlai was not being petty, pace Gopal, but only truthful when he told some Sri Lankan MPs in October 1964: "I have never met a more arrogant man than Nehru." (S. Gopal, Jawaharlal Nehru; Vol. 3 (1956-64); Oxford University Press, 1984, pp. 270-271).
</>
some interesting passages from the link above:

Galbraith's letters on Vietnam are not noteworthy only for the fact that his dire predictions came true but more so for the clarity and precision of the assessments he made in his letters. He sized up the Diem regime's weaknesses and the Viet Cong's strengths with calm realism. This is all the more remarkable for the fact that, as the number and length of the letters tesfity, his feelings on Vietnam were strong.

He once asked Kennedy: "Incidentally, who is the man in your administration who decides what countries are strategic? I would like to have his name and address and ask him what is so important about this real estate in the space age." Galbraith was ambitious and deferential but he was never anybody's yes man. Not all intellectuals were as independent.

rest in peace Mr. Galbraith

[underpants]

43. Yes-recently released documents show that he was going to be

the way out of Vietnam before it got too bad. But sadly JFK died (why was that again?) and Vietnam escalated.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5360.htm

[barb162]

32. A very very great man

He will be missed

[UrbScotty]

36. May he rest in peace. (nt)

[TheBaldyMan]

37. I'm am deeply saddened by his death, one of the leading economists of

both the 20th and 21st centuries along with others like Deering and Maynard-Keynes he combined academic brilliance with practical experience.

I would also express my sympathy to his family.

[Odin2005]

38. RIP, Mr. Galbraith. Truely one of the greatest economists of all time.

The US would be a hell of a lot better if today's economists still adheared to him and Keynes intead of Freidman's free market fundimentalism, which is, to use one of Galbraith's most famous quotes, part of the desire of conservatives to justify thier selfishness.

[wellst0nev0ter]

39. Thought He Was One Of Those Men Who Would LIve Forever

Since he was such a presence in this nation's political discourse and policies since the Depression. Ho well, this nation would be a whole lot better if there were more men like JKG. Godspeed.

On edit:

He was rejected from the army because he was too tall? LOOOOOOL!

[Robbien]

40. DUer Zomby Woof has written a beautiful tribute

here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1068975

[JeffR]

41. Galbraith and Jane Jacobs gone in the same week

There's a lot to be happy about this week, but these losses are huge. Hard to imagine their like will ever come 'round again.

RIP.

[1gobluedem]

42. A giant of a man in so many ways

He will be missed.