Economics in Perspective: A Critical History

Front Cover
Houghton Mifflin, 1987 - Business & Economics - 324 pages
The author examines the development of economics from ancient Greece to the modern welfare state, arguing that its "history cannot be understood apart from the circumstances that shaped the economic beliefs of the time, including the powerful influences that bent those beliefs to what best served the financial advantage of those who espoused them."

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Contents

A Look at the Landscape I
1
After Adam
9
The Enduring Interim
20
Copyright

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About the author (1987)

John Kenneth Galbraith is a Canadian-born American economist who is perhaps the most widely read economist in the world. He taught at Harvard from 1934-1939 and then again from 1949-1975. An adviser to President John F. Kennedy, he served from 1961 to 1963 as U.S. ambassador to India. His style and wit in writing and his frequent media appearances have contributed greatly to his fame as an economist. Galbraith believes that it is not sufficient for government to manage the level of effective demand; government must manage the market itself. Galbraith stated in American Capitalism (1952) that the market is far from competitive, and governments and labor unions must serve as "countervailing power." He believes that ultimately "producer sovereignty" takes the place of consumer sovereignty and the producer - not the consumer - becomes ruler of the marketplace.

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