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James Galbraith

James K. Galbraith is the Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in government-business relations at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, a senior scholar of the Levy Economics Institute, and chair of the Board of Economists for Peace and Security. His most recent book is Unbearable Cost: Bush, Greenspan and the Economics of Empire.

Recent Articles

Healthy Skepticism

James GalbraithApr 16, 2003

Recently, Andrew Sullivan was good enough to quote my last column -- in which I argued for continued opposition to the war in Iraq -- on his Web site. He cited me as an example of poor military forecasting, which I don't deny. The nightmare prospect of house-to-house fighting across Baghdad made me extremely anxious, two weeks ago.

Still Wrong

James GalbraithApr 01, 2003

In a recent column, TAP Online Editor Richard Just and TomPaine.com Executive Editor Nick Penniman prescribed "the only moral and practical option" for liberals quavering over the war. It is, they wrote, "to begin immediately campaigning for a more ambitious, comprehensive and compassionate reconstruction of Iraq . . . while supporting the war effort that will lay the groundwork for such plans to be enacted."

Lötterdämmerung

James GalbraithDec 16, 2002

Think of it: If God had made Strom Thurmond just six weeks older,
the
Senate would still be under Democratic control.

It's enough to shake one's faith -- and mine was none too strong to
begin
with. But then it became apparent that the Almighty was, as usual,
one
step ahead. He had devised a divinely devious plan.

The Unbearable Costs of Empire

James GalbraithNov 06, 2002

Talk in Washington these days is of Rome and its imperial responsibilities. But George W. Bush is no Julius Caesar. France under Napoleon may be the better precedent. Like Bush, Napoleon came to power in a coup. Like Bush, he fought off a foreign threat, then took advantage to convert the republic into an empire. Like Bush, he built up an army. Like Bush, he could not resist the temptation to use it. But unlike Caesar's, Napoleon's imperial pretensions did not last.

Shock without Therapy

James GalbraithAug 12, 2002

The Russia Hand: A Memoir of Presidential Diplomacy
By Strobe Talbott. Random House, 457 pages, $29.95


The Oligarchs: Wealth and Power in the New Russia
By David E. Hoffman. PublicAffairs, 567 pages, $21.00


Russia's Post-Communist Economy Edited by Brigitte Granville and Peter Oppenheimer. Oxford University Press, 551 pages, $29.95


The New Russia: Transition Gone Awry Edited by Lawrence R. Klein and Marshall Pomer. Foreword by Mikhail Gorbachev. Stanford University Press, 451 pages, $24.95

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