SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

James K. Galbraith: The Great Crisis and the Dismal Science

How the Economists Got it Wrong… Again

"But although the doctrine itself has remained unquestioned by orthodox economists up to a late date, its signal failure for purposes of scientific prediction has greatly impaired, in the course of time, the prestige of its practitioners. For professional economists... were apparently unmoved by the lack of correspondence between the results of their theory and the facts of observation; – a discrepancy which the ordinary man has not failed to observe..."

John Maynard Keynes , The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, (1936) p. 33

James K. Galbraith is Professor of Government at the University of Texas at Austin where he holds the Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr Chair in Government/Business Relations. His distinguished academic career includes degrees from Harvard and Yale, a Marshall Scholarship to Cambridge (UK), affiliations with the Brookings Institute and the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, and the Chair of the Board of Economists for Peace and Security, a global professional network.

Galbraith has been at the forefront of progressive economic policy debate in the US and world-wide for many years. He served in several positions on the staff of the U.S. Congress, including Executive Director of the Joint Economic Committee. His contributions have appeared in the The New York Times, the Washington Post, Boston Globe, The Guardian and writes regularly for The Texas Observer, The Nation, The American Project, Mother Jones and The Progressive.

Galbraith's latest book, The Predator State (2008), eloquently debunks the myth that American Conservatives still take the free market seriously and calls on Liberals (and progressive world-wide) to wake up to the realities of the "corporate republic" that is advanced capitalism instead of bowing their heads to an out-dated myth.

Since the onset of the current financial and economic crisis, Galbraith has been the most outspoken, iconoclastic and recognised voice of progressive economics in the US and beyond, advocating an effective reform agenda designed to address the structural causes of this crisis. On 9 July 2009, he testified to the Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology, Committee on Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives regarding the functions of the Federal Reserve under the Obama administration's proposals for financial regulation reform.

For further information see http://www.utexas.edu/lgj/faculty/galbraith.com

This talk is free to attend and there is no registration. Despite this, please be aware that places are not guaranteed.