Happy Birthday, JK

As he turns 97, the 6ft 8ins JK Galbraith remains a giant of economics
by William Keegan

If ever there was a legend in his own lifetime, it is John Kenneth Galbraith, professor emeritus of Harvard University, adviser to
Presidents from Roosevelt to Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, author of more than 40 books, and a man due to celebrate his 97th
birthday next Saturday.

Known as JK Galbraith to most and Ken to his close friends, he is the tallest (at 6ft 8in) and oldest economist in America. He is
also the most famous living economist in the world - and indeed the best-selling.

In common with many of my generation, I first came across Galbraith's work in The Affluent Society (1958), a hugely successful
book - so brilliant and so unmathematical that it incurred the envy and wrath of a certain cohort of his fellow economists.

It was a book that challenged many assumptions about economics and politics (which, for Galbraith, have always been closely
linked) and which gave the world some great insights and lasting sayings, including 'the conventional wisdom' and 'private affluence
and public squalor'.

Originally published in the Guardian (www.guardian.uk) no link.
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1009-24.htm

dp

and so right about so many things.