James K. Galbraith

Writing for PS since 2015
5 commentaries
0 videos & podcasts

James K. Galbraith is Chair in Government/Business Relations at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin. His most recent books are Inequality: What Everyone Needs to Know and Welcome to the Poisoned Chalice: The Destruction of Greece and the Future of Europe.

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The Unsustainability of Inequality
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The Unsustainability of Inequality

Aug 23, 2019 James K. Galbraith argues that a sustainable and civilized future depends on getting a grip on global finance.

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Capitalism’s Great Reckoning
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Capitalism’s Great Reckoning

Apr 19, 2019 James K. Galbraith reviews books by three leading observers assessing the lamentable state of modern political economy.

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Modern Monetary Realism
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Modern Monetary Realism

Mar 15, 2019 James K. Galbraith asks whether a potential boon to economic policymakers is really a dire threat, as its critics claim.

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What Trump’s Tax Cut Really Means for the US Economy
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What Trump’s Tax Cut Really Means for the US Economy

Jan 19, 2018 James K. Galbraith rejects the dominant neoclassical interpretation of the relationship between taxation and growth.

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The IMF’s “Tough Choices” on Greece
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The IMF’s “Tough Choices” on Greece

Jun 16, 2015 James K. Galbraith calls on the Fund to heed its own advice – and its own evidence – on debt restructuring.

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Stories That Can’t End Well
May 7, 2019

Soviet train tunnels in mountains to avoid going uphill? That's interesting. European Russia is mostly flat. And a list of the world's longest tunnels has many in China, but only a handful dating from the days of the Soviet Union, and those are the metro lines of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Minsk, Kharkiv and Kiev. Admittedly those works are very grand. But they weren't built through mountains, or "just to avoid having to go uphill." Could Professor James please provide a source for his narrative on this point?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest_tunnels.

The Economic Consequences of Automation

Robert Skidelsky

Economic theory does not provide a clear answer regarding the overall impact of technological progress on jobs. And even if automation has traditionally been beneficial in the long run, policymakers should never ignore its disruptive short-term effects on workers.

Jerome Powell’s Dilemma

Carmen M. Reinhart & Vincent Reinhart

There is a reason that the US Federal Reserve chair often has a haunted look. Probably to his deep and never-to-be-expressed frustration, the Fed is setting monetary policy in a way that increases the likelihood that President Donald Trump will be reelected next year.

Brexit House of Cards

Mark Malloch-Brown

Following British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's suspension of Parliament, and an appeals court ruling declaring that act unlawful, the United Kingdom finds itself in a state of political frenzy. With rational decision-making having become all but impossible, any new political agreement that emerges is likely to be both temporary and deeply flawed.