John Kenneth Galbraith

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) was one of America’s most famous economists for good reason. From his acerbic analysis of America’s “private wealth and public squalor” to his denunciation of the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, Galbraith consistently challenged “conventional wisdom” (a phrase he coined). He did so as a witty commentator on America’s political follies and as a versatile author of bestselling books—such as The Affluent Society and The New Industrial State—that warn of the dangers of deregulated markets, corporate greed, and inattention to the costs of our military power. Here, in the first full-length biography of Galbraith and his times, Richard Parker provides not only a nuanced portrait of this extraordinary man, but also an important reinterpretation of twentieth-century public policy and economic practices.

“Whatever you may think of his ideas, John Kenneth Galbraith has led an extraordinary life. Doing justice to this life story requires an outsize biography, one that not only tells Mr. Galbraith’s tale but sets it on the broader canvas of America’s political and economic evolution. And Richard Parker’s book does just that.”—Economist

“Parker’s book is more than a chronicle of Galbraith’s life; it’s a history of American politics and policy from FDR through George W. Bush. . . . It will make readers more economically and politically aware.”—USA Today

“The most readable and instructive biography of the century.”—William F. Buckley, National Review

Mixed Signals

In recent decades, the growth of the television industry and broadcast news media has been astounding. As this phenomenon has unfolded, the United States has become the "leader" of commercialized television broadcasting nationally and reaching every sector of that market. However, more recently, international news services, such as CNN, the BBC World Service, and Sky Channel have extended their viewership to a global audience. In doing so, these stations are capable of grossing larger margins of profit, as well as offering extremely high-quality news and arts programming to an estimated audience of 130 million. In an era of diminished global ideological competition, tight governmental budgets, and increasingly privatized television, the development of new broadcasting has been driven up to take shape with entertainment television. Even in the United States, the news has shifted from content to an albeit glamorized presentation of the news, which many have termed "tabloidization." Though this style of television advertising "sells" programming, many United States firms are missing the global picture. In essence, when there is a globalized news, it will be able to turn a profit on a grandeur scale and be a more effective commercial vehicle for selling things. In Mixed Signals, Richard Parker contemplates these important aspects of the developing global television market, while entertainment programming will still have to appeal to many local tastes. Also, Parker makes clear the basic economics of television and how this understanding will enhance the dissemination of news and we as an audience will take this even more for granted.

The Myth of the Middle Class

Reviewed on Kirkus Reviews (Book Reviews, Sites, Romance, Fantasy, Fiction | Kirkus Reviews). Book released September 1, 1972

It would be interesting to compare Richard’s observations in the early 70’s to what we see today (2024) - comment by the webmaster.

As a myth-buster, this is a successful and a very timely book. Parker firmly points out that the average factory worker takes home $75 a week; that a full half of U.S. families live below the exceptionally modest "moderate working-class" budget specified by the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics; that insofar as blue-collar workers have moved into the service industries, their wage rates are even lower; and that such affluence as most workers possess is based on heavy consumer debt. Parker makes much of the fact (previously noted by Lampman, Kolko and others) that the distribution of income has not changed significantly over the decades; the affluent '50's, like the prosperous '20's, were distinguished by great wealth at the top and significant poverty at the bottom, but the '50's marked the emergence of a "New Class," an increasingly prosperous layer of professionals, managers, et al. who found their situation illicitly generalized by Galbraith, Reisman, and other heralds of affluence, social, scientists who ignored the increasing trend of two-wage earner families as well as the statistics of the sub-affluent majority. As an analytic effort, the book is incomplete. There are only two brief references to the fact that real wages have declined since 1965, and no theoretical confrontation with the question of whether wage increases cause inflation -- though Parker's data provide some basis for doubting that they do. The book narrowly confines itself to problems of money income and distribution, without examining seriously such other components of living standards as public services, though education as a universal uplifter is debunked. Parker's polemicizing against "the myth of the middle class" is somewhat weakened by his acceptance of the concept "middle class," which he divides into "lower" -- ordinary working people -- and "upper" (the latter the "New Class"). He states, without argument, that expanded growth, even "selective growth," cannot solve income problems, and offers tiny hints that capitalism might be intrinsically flawed, but his alternative is a vague Fabian egalitarianism. Hopefully Parker's deficiencies will not dampen the impact of his insistence that scarcity and deprivation remain real and widespread phenomena in the U.S.