John Kenneth Galbraith - Information File

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John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) was a Canadian-born, naturalized- U.S. citizen economist whose theories were controversial and widely debated during his lifetime. He was a college professor, a lifelong liberal and progressive thinker, a best-selling author, and an advisor to Presidents. From the 1950’s to the 1970’s, his writings exerted tremendous influence in the academic community and in public policy circles. He taught economics at Harvard University and Princeton University, being named professor at Harvard University in 1949 and teaching there from 1949-1975. He was U.S. Ambassador to India from 1961-1963. He also served on the editorial board of Fortune magazine.

He was assigned to the U.S. Government’s Office of Price Administration during World War II to rein in inflation and keep prices stable, and became well acquainted with Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor. Later, he would advise John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Bill Clinton was influenced by his writings. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom twice, once from President Truman in 1946 and once from President Bill Clinton in 2000.

He is most famous for a “trilogy” of three books he authored: American Capitalism (1952), The Affluent Society (1958) and The New Industrial State (1967).

In American Capitalism, Galbraith said that the American economy of the future would be dominated by big business, lobby groups and labor unions, as opposed to big business alone. He foresaw a more active role for government in society.

Galbraith saw the widening gap between the richest and the poorest in society as a threat to economic stability and a "moral crime". In perhaps his most widely read book, The Affluent Society, published in 1958, he noted the disparity between consumer spending on private goods by individuals resulting from oversupply of those goods by large corporations and insufficient public investment in transportation, parks, education, and other public amenities. He advocated increased government spending on infrastructure funded by higher taxes in the postwar period.

In his book, The New Industrial State (1967), he examined the impact of large corporations on modern society. He argued that large corporations could manage consumer demand through advertising or predominant market share. His theories have been largely disproved by subsequent events in which large corporations have suffered losses in market share due to insufficient demand by consumers for the specific products the corporations produced, an example being the automobile industry.

He was heavily influenced by British economist John Maynard Keynes, who advocated use of government spending to reduce unemployment and moderate the swings in the business cycle. Galbraith often described himself as an "evangelical Keynesian."

Galbraith made public appearances as a guest speaker well into his 90’s. He died in 2006.

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006)

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