The Abiding Economics of John Kenneth Galbraith*

Abstract

The work of John Kenneth Galbraith provides enduring markers for the economics that still remains to be built. Herewith are brief reflections on the guideposts and the task ahead. *These remarks were prepared for the first annual John Kenneth Galbraith lecture at the Canadian Economics Association, Halifax, N.S. on June 3, 2007. Earlier versions were delivered to a joint URPE-AEA session on John Kenneth Galbraith at the annual meetings of the American Economic Association, January 7, 2006, and a joint seminar of the Brookings Institution and the New America Foundation, April 3, 2005, in turn adapted in part from ‘Galbraith: A Partisan Appraisal’ published in the Brazilian Journal of Political Economy, January–March 2005. Parts are also adapted from ‘Can We Please Move On? A Contribution to the Guerrien Debate,’ Post-Autistic Economics Review, No. 15, September 4, 2002.