The Spoiled Minister’s Sermon

Economics and the Public Purpose By John Kenneth Galbraith

Houghton, 334 pp., $10 The conventional wisdom is that John Kenneth Galbraith is a lousy economist. Scholars who preoccupy themselves with the surface of things, to use Galbraith’s own putdown, point to his inability to understand market processes, his lack of intellectual rigor, and his distaste for wrestling with the complexities of existence. All these traits are well to the fore in his latest treatise, a Summa of Galbraithian doctrine.

FM

About the Author

Ferdinand Mount

Featured Tags

Economics and the Public Purpose By John Kenneth Galbraith

Houghton, 334 pp., $10 The conventional wisdom is that John Kenneth Galbraith is a lousy economist. Scholars who preoccupy themselves with the surface of things, to use Galbraith’s own putdown, point to his inability to understand market processes, his lack of intellectual rigor, and his distaste for wrestling with the complexities of existence. All these traits are well to the fore in his latest treatise, a Summa of Galbraithian doctrine.