John Kenneth Galbraith 1908-2006

He was a liberal and not ashamed of the word.

The Wall Street Journal brings news of the passing of one of the true giants of that nexus between academic economics and the policy world. Galbraith was 97 years old. The WSJ tells us of this quote:

"There is no hope for liberals if they seek only to imitate conservatives, and no function either," Mr. Galbraith wrote in a 1992 article in Modern Maturity, a publication of the American Association of Retired Persons.

"In the end, it is the liberals who save the conservatives," he wrote, insisting that capitalism couldn't survive without social programs such as public housing, unemployment benefits and welfare for the helpless poor.

Galbraith lived through the Great Depression, and clearly the experience influenced his view of the world. Although I don't agree with much of his policy stance, I have always admired the man, the scholar, the writer. I think we would all do well to remember that in the late 19th century and early 20th century capitalism was under fire even more than it is today. As we gradually lose those economists who lived and worked during the Depression, we lose more of the connection to that time. That thought saddens me immensely.

The NY Times writes:

Mr. Galbraith became an American citizen, and taught economics at Princeton in 1939. But after the fall of France in 1940, Mr. Galbraith joined the Roosevelt administration to help manage an economy being prepared for war. He rose to become the administrator of wage and price controls in the Office of Price Administration. Prices remained stable, but he grew controversial, drawing the constant fire of industry complaints. "I reached the point that all price fixers reach," he said, "My enemies outnumbered my friends."

...

He summarized the lessons of his days at the Office of Price Administration in "A Theory of Price Control," later calling it the best book he ever wrote. He said: "The only difficulty is that five people read it. Maybe 10. I made up my mind that I would never again place myself at the mercy of the technical economists who had the enormous power to ignore what I had written. I set out to involve a larger community."

...He continued to pour out magazine articles, book reviews, op-ed essays, letters to editors; he lectured everywhere, sometimes debating William F. Buckley Jr., his friend and Gstaad skiing partner....

I find the part about the OPA kind of amusing, but the line about William F. Buckley Jr. says it all. How I would have loved to sit in on a conversation between the two of them. Sadly, such a thing will never happen again.

Many economists of my generation probably have not even read Galbraith's works (or Keynes's or Friedman's or Hayek's). That is extremely unfortunate. Whether you agree with these authors or not, there are many things to learn from each of them. I have always felt that the experience of reading works like these is like intellectual weightlifting. You are stronger for having taken the time to grapple with the ideas.

Tonight, I cannot help but reflect on what it means to be liberal or conservative in the major policy debates of today and how our debates and the circumstances of our time will influence the intellectuals of the next generation. I hope that our time can produce a few liberals and conservatives with the passion and conviction of Galbraith, but I suspect that there will never be another quite like him.

UPDATE: Bloggers react (WSJ). Also, you really must read Brad DeLong's post. Cafe Hayek links to this nice piece by the Boston Globe. Mark Thoma reprints a lengthy commentary on Galbraith's work.