Although he stood six-feet, eight inches John Kenneth Galbraith’s height had nothing to do with the fact that he was larger than life.
Although Galbraith was an economist, he was much more than that. Galbraith was an ambassador, a political advisor, and an author. He worked for Roosevelt and Truman and was a very close advisor and friend of President John F. Kennedy.
He was extremely intelligent and wrote with such ease. There are few books that are considered classics in the world of economic history, but Galbraith’s The Great Crash, 1929 was undoubtably one of them.
While right-wing economists have long argued with Galbraith’s policies, one cannot deny the influence that he had on economic policy.
On Galbraith’s legacy, Paul Samuelson stated:
Ken Galbraith . . . will be remembered, and read when most of us Nobel Laureates will be buried in footnotes down in dusty library stacks. [1]
J.K. Galbraith was 97.
1. Parker, Richard. John Kenneth Galbraith: His Life, His Politics, His Economics. Harper Collins, 2005. pp. 645
More here:
— Wall Street Journal
— New York Times
— Boston Globe
— NPR
— Washington Post
Blogosphere:
“I have long been a fan of Galbraith as a person, even though I disagree with almost all of his conclusions as an economist.” — Greg Mankiw
— Brad DeLong has posted his review of Galbraith’s most recent biography.
Galbraith was an economist with a difference. He was not a rigid theoretician. His views were tempered by a larger world view in the noble traditions of great American liberals whose field of thoughts was the whole world. America is a great nation due to its great liberal leaders His writing was in impeccable style interspersed with flashes of sharp wit.