The Economics of Innocent Fraud: Truth For Our Time - Hardcover

Galbraith, John Kenneth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0713998202 ISBN 13: 9780713998207

Publisher: Allen Lane, 2004

Synopsis

John Kenneth Galbraith, lifelong critic of unbridled corporate power and one of the most renowned economists of the twentieth century, explodes the myths at the core of Western society.

Sounding the alarm on the gap between 'conventional wisdom' and reality, Galbraith distils years of expertise to deliver a scathing critique of today's economics, politics and public morality. He shows the danger of the private sector's unprecedented and unbridled control over public life - from government to the military to the environment. And he reveals how politicians and the media have colluded in the myths of a benign market: that big business always knows best, that minimal intervention stimulates the economy, that obscene pay gaps and unrestrained self-enrichment are an inevitable by-product of the system. The result, he shows, is that we have given ourselves over to a lie and come to accept legal, legitimate, innocent fraud.

Galbraith's taut, wry and incisive analysis shows that the gulf between truth and illusion has never been wider. It is essential reading for anyone who cares about the economic and political future of the world.

About this title

Review:

John Kenneth Galbraith has been immersed in economics for most of his long and remarkable life. The purpose of this extended essay is to illuminate examples of "innocent fraud" or the gulf between perception and reality in the modern American economic system--a system he had a hand in creating during his tenure in FDR's administration. Although it tackles serious subjects, the book sparkles with wit and sly understatement.

The dominant role of the corporation in modern society is one such form of innocent fraud, and he explains how managers hold the real power in our system, not consumers or shareholders as the image would suggest. Despite the "appearance of relevance for owners" capitalism has given way to corporate bureaucracy--"a bureaucracy in control of its task and its compensation. Rewards that verge on larceny." He explains how the public realm is effectively controlled by the private sector. The arms industry is but one example of this: "While the Pentagon is still billed as being of the public sector, few doubt the influence of corporate power in its decisions." Galbraith also looks at the financial world, which "sustains a large, active, well-rewarded community based on compelled but seemingly sophisticated ignorance", and in particular the Federal Reserve System, "our most prestigious form of fraud, our most elegant escape from reality." In essence, Galbraith says that the Fed, for all of its power and prestige, effectively does nothing. And he has little problem with this: "Let their ineffective role be accepted and forgiven."

Both a guide to the present and an aid to shaping the future, this slim, satisfying book is a font of wisdom, conventional and otherwise, from a respected elder statesman in the twilight of his life. --Shawn Carkonen, Amazon.com

Review:

"This brief treatise is a well-written, logical argument about the state of the economy." Publishers Weekly

About this edition

• Publisher: Allen Lane
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0713998202
• ISBN 13: 9780713998207
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 80