Liberal thinker JK Galbraith dies

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There was a wise man who gave good advice to all who listened. He once headed a TV series and and showed a very dry sense of humour. .
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In 1987 he warned us (on PBS) about the teetering market. The same day I cached in all my funds and saved most of my modest fortune. The day after all fell down.
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Years later I saw him on an airplane and thanked him for saving me. He gave me his wry smile.
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Liberal thinker JK Galbraith dies
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Mr Galbraith advised several Democratic presidents
Renowned economist and liberal thinker John Kenneth Galbraith has died in the US at the age of 97.
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He died on Saturday of natural causes in hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, his son Alan said.
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The Canadian-born Harvard professor wrote over 30 books on socio-economic issues, the most famous of which was The Affluent Society in 1958.
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He moved in political circles, advising Democratic presidents and serving as John F Kennedy's envoy to India.
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He taught at Harvard University from 1948 until his retirement in 1975, but continued to publish books on socio-economic issues.

An advocate of government action to solve social problems, he focused on issues such as the distribution of wealth in society.
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He was awarded the Medal of Freedom twice, by President Truman in 1946 and President Clinton in 2000.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4959302.stm

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I hadn't heard this yet. Thx for the heads-up, detano. Galbraith was, without a doubt, the most respected economist of his time.

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His sense of humor was what I enjoyed most about him.

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He really hated war and powerful businesses that created war for their own profit.
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Civilisation has made great strides over the centuries in science, healthcare, the arts and most, if not all, economic well-being. But it has also given a privileged position to the development of weapons and the threat and reality of war. Mass slaughter has become the ultimate civilised achievement.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1261593,00.html

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When I was in college in California in 1974 JGK came to our dorm with my Econ prof. They were slightly less buzzed than we were that evening, but I remember two things: he was the tallest old guy I had ever seen (I was 21 then so old was a BIG category) and he put his feet up on our coffee table. At the end of the year I took the coffee table, have it still , and have never wiped that spot.

OTOH JGK was stuck in the FDR 30's and 40's, made value judgements about economic preferences that were quickly passe', and clearly wrote for a living. Nice guy tho, he loved the cheap plum wine we had on hand.

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Farewell, John Kenneth Galbraith.
(What a novel concept for an ecomonist!: that ordinary people's lives actually matter! Sounds almost like Camelot! Sad

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Galbraith was a good economist, but was overshadowed by many including Milton Friedman. The funniest story I ever heard about Galbraith was told by William F. Buckley--

quote:

"Galbraith was intoduced, and a line straight as a superhighway was quickly constructed by the intoduced between Aristotle, Erasmus, Locke, Adam Smith, John Maynard Keynes --and your next speaker. At which point, opening his mouth to speak, the tall austere Scotsman, for the first time since he was four and one half years old, froze. A lovely young couple had dashed up to the proscenium, and there shed their raincoats revealing. well, revealing absolutely everything. Eve was rather quickly detained, and the raincoat put back on her shoulders. But Adam bounced up on the stage and holding a pig's head in hand, danced like a leprachaun around the silent, not to say, awestruck, Professor Galbraith. Out came the fuzz from the wings(police brutality, everywhere you go, police brutality) and Galbraith finally turned to his speech, but alas, not many people were really listening and, to show you how upset he was, he forgot to blame Adam and Eve on Richard Nixon."

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Liberal thinker JK Galbraith dies

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