Galbraith, John Kenneth

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006), one of the most widely read economists in the United States during the 1950s through the 1970s, was a Canadian American economist who taught at Harvard University for several years. In 1972, he officiated as the president of the American Economic Association, and in 2010, he became the first economist to have his works included in the prestigious Library of America series. In terms of government appointments, he served in the administrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson, most notably serving as the ambassador to India under former president Kennedy. As a Keynesian economist and institutionalist, Galbraith was critical of the assumptions associated with a free enterprise system. Indeed, he questioned the existence ...