Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 The eclipse of The New Industrial State?
- 2 A life in our times
- 3 The economics of John Kenneth Galbraith
- 4 The methodology of John Kenneth Galbraith
- 5 The general theory of advanced development
- 6 Why people are poor
- 7 Uncertainty and the modern corporation
- 8 A theory of the multinational corporation
- 9 The management of specific demand
- 10 Money and the real world
- 11 A man for our times
- 12 The origins of the Galbraithian system: talking to John Kenneth Galbraith
- References
- Additional works by Galbraith
- Index
12 - The origins of the Galbraithian system: talking to John Kenneth Galbraith
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 The eclipse of The New Industrial State?
- 2 A life in our times
- 3 The economics of John Kenneth Galbraith
- 4 The methodology of John Kenneth Galbraith
- 5 The general theory of advanced development
- 6 Why people are poor
- 7 Uncertainty and the modern corporation
- 8 A theory of the multinational corporation
- 9 The management of specific demand
- 10 Money and the real world
- 11 A man for our times
- 12 The origins of the Galbraithian system: talking to John Kenneth Galbraith
- References
- Additional works by Galbraith
- Index
Summary
The fact that the general conditions of life are not stationary is the source of many of the difficulties that are met with in applying economic doctrines to practical problems.
Alfred Marshall (1920: 347)On June 22, 2001 I talked at length with J. K. Galbraith and his wife Catherine – affectionately referred to as Kitty – who was a constant companion and co-organizer throughout his career, about his intellectual history, the origins of his contribution to the theory of the firm and his relationships and experiences with both the two Cambridges and Post Keynesianism. An edited and abridged summary of our discussion is reproduced below.
The origins of the Galbraithian vision
dunn: How would you describe the Galbraithian system and where do you see its origins? Would it be correct to view it as a reconstruction of economics after the dissolution of the Marshallian system ushered in by Sraffa (1926), Chamberlin (1933), and Robinson (1933) and their recognition of the rise of the modern, large corporation, or would it be more appropriate to view it as part of the old Institutionalist literature and embedded very much in Veblen's (1904) Theory of the Business Enterprise?
galbraith: One of the things about your question that interests me is that I never thought there was a Galbraith system. And in some ways it is a rather new question to me because what I've done all my life is start from the usual starting point, which was a thorough and complete grounding in Alfred Marshall. The first main course I had in economics was at Berkeley; that was after I left Canada where the economics instruction was very poor. […]
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- Information
- The Economics of John Kenneth GalbraithIntroduction, Persuasion, and Rehabilitation, pp. 382 - 396Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010