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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

Corporate Democracy; Civic Disrespect

James GalbraithDec 19, 2001


With the events of late in the year 2000, the United States left behind constitutional republicanism, and turned to a different form of government.

It is not, however, a new form. It is, rather, a transplant, highly familiar from a different arena of advanced capitalism.

A War Economy...

James GalbraithDec 19, 2001

In a war economy, the public obligation is to do what
is necessary: to support the military effort, to protect and defend the home
territory, to stabilize the economy itself, and, especially, to maintain the
physical well-being, solidarity, and morale of the people. These may not be easy
tasks in the months ahead.

Did the U.S. Military Plan a Nuclear First Strike for 1963?

Recently declassified information shows that the military presented President Kennedy with a plan for a surprise nuclear attack on the Soviet Union in the early 1960s.

James GalbraithDec 19, 2001

During the early 1960s the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) introduced the world to the possibility of instant total war. Thirty years later, no nation has yet fired any nuclear missile at a real target. Orthodox history holds that a succession of defensive nuclear doctrines and strategies -- from "massive retaliation" to "mutual assured destruction" -- worked, almost seamlessly, to deter Soviet aggression against the United States and to prevent the use of nuclear weapons.

Self-Fulfilling Prophets: Inflated Zeal at the Federal Reserve

Greenspan's rate increases needlessly threaten to abort the recovery. A more accountable central bank is long overdue.

James GalbraithDec 19, 2001

On February 4, 1994, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan announced a quarter-point rise in federal funds rate, which is the overnight interbank lending rate and a basic instrument of monetary policy. It was the first of four interest rate hikes. By late May, the Federal Reserve had driven up short-term interest rates by a percentage point and a quarter.

The Coming Budget Battle

James GalbraithDec 19, 2001

The passage of President Clinton's budget, marked by its one-half trillion in deficit reduction, is already restoring respect for the administration. Clinton will be tempted to move on to other issues. The urgent need to make good on health care reform and the generally sour nature of budget discussions will add to this impulse.

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