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. […]
James K. Galbraith
James K. Galbraith holds the Lloyd M. Bentsen, Jr. Chair in Government/Business Relations at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, the University of Texas at Austin. He is a member of the Lincean Academy and author most recently of Inequality: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2016).
Posted inFeatures
Shock without Therapy
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 […]
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Corporate Democracy; Civic Disrespect
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. This is corporate democracy. It is a system whereby a […]
Posted inFeatures
A War Economy…
In a war economy, the public obligation is to do whatis necessary: to support the military effort, to protect and defend the hometerritory, to stabilize the economy itself, and, especially, to maintain thephysical well-being, solidarity, and morale of the people. These may not be easytasks in the months ahead. We are facing an economic war–but […]
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How the Economists Got It Wrong
The American Economic Association (AEA) met January 7-9 in Boston, for a millennial program distinguished by its attention to international policy issues, most particularly financial crises (as in Asia) and the failure of the so-called “economic transition” (as in Russia). And yet, in this odd rush to relevance, something was curiously awry. Apart from a […]
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Watching Greenspan Grow
Greenspan: The Man Behind Money, Justin Martin. Perseus Publishing, 284 pages, $28.00. Maestro: Greenspan’s Fed and the American Boom, Bob Woodward. Simon and Schuster, 270 pages, $25.00. For those seeking a personal portrait of America’s maximum economic-policy maker, Justin Martin’s biography of Alan Greenspan will serve nicely. Informed and sympathetic, Martin traces Greenspan’s personal and […]
Posted inEconomic Policy
The Surrender of Economic Policy
As long as the big choices in macroeconomic policy are off the table, other efforts to raise living standards will not make much difference.
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Incurable Optimists:
In the status hierarchy of my profession, the Wall Street economist holds a strangely prominent role. Typically, though not always, he lacks academic standing, analytical achievement, or significant publication. Research is foreign to him; independent thought unknown. His job is mainly to get his name into the papers. At this he works exceptionally hard. And […]
Posted inEconomic Policy
Test the Limit
I t has been amusing to watch the natural rate of unemployment come down. Two years ago, the community of respectable economists held-though with exceptions including Robert Eisner of Northwestern, Ray Fair at Yale, Harvard’s James Medoff, and myself-that 6 percent unemployment was as low as the economy could go without triggering inflation. This meant, […]
Posted inBooks
The Money Artist
Lawrence Weschler’s Boggs: A Comedy Of Values 12.02.99 | reviewed by James K. Galbraith Modern economists make bad historians, as a rule. The problem is that a simple-minded metaphor-supply and demand-with its deep yet subtle political commitment to laissez-faire, controls their thought. The market is supposed to rule. Therefore it does. Whatever happened, the market […]
