The first time I ever noticed Galbraith — it would have been around 1962 — he was on some talking heads program on British TV arguing the case that Western capitalism and Soviet socialism were “converging.” A classic cartoon of the time showed JFK and Khrushchev as children, both being tugged away by a nanny from fascinated gazing at a store wiondow. JFK’s store said SOCIALISM, Khrushchev’s said CAPITALISM.

Was there ever an idea more wrong-headed? Hard to believe now that a first-rate mind like Galbraith’s could have entertained it. And, of course, one is left wondering how much of our current conventional wisdom is equally daft. Anyone like to offer a guess?