Galbraith, John Kenneth

Canadian-born US economist. Considered a renegade by many of this peers, he criticized mainstream neo-classical economics, for example in his bestsellers American Capitalism: The Concept of Countervailing Power (1952) and The Affluent Society (1958). Despite his controversial views, which included his belief in planning and more state control, his contempt for rigorous analysis, and his insistence that most economics is simple ‘conventional wisdom’, he became president of the American Economic Association in 1972.

American Capitalism became a best-seller, though its success was surpassed by The Affluent Society. Its contrast between ‘private affluence’ and ‘public squalor’ immediately entered into popular language. The effect of this book marked the beginning of the anti-growth movement that ushered in the war on poverty and the ecological movement of the late 1960s.