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James K. Galbraith

James K. Galbraith

36 commentaries
1 videos & podcasts

James K. Galbraith, Professor of Government and Chair in Government/Business Relations at the University of Texas at Austin, is a former staff economist for the House Banking Committee and a former executive director of the Joint Economic Committee of Congress. From 1993-97, he served as chief technical adviser for macroeconomic reform to China’s State Planning Commission. He is the author of Inequality: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2016) and Welcome to the Poisoned Chalice: The Destruction of Greece and the Future of Europe (Yale University Press, 2016).

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  1. Down on the Biden Economy
    galbraith28_ Chip SomodevillaGetty Images_biden Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

    Down on the Biden Economy

    Sep 20, 2023 James K. Galbraith thinks the failure of wages to keep up with inflation explains much of the public’s dour mood.

  2. America’s “New” China Narrative
    galbraith27_ HECTOR RETAMALAFP via Getty Images_china economy HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images

    America’s “New” China Narrative

    Aug 17, 2023 James K. Galbraith thinks the current US conventional wisdom misses the point and is being driven by ulterior motives.

  3. Unpacking America’s “Soft Landing”
    galbraith26 Drew AngererGetty Images_ powell Drew Angerer/Getty Images

    Unpacking America’s “Soft Landing”

    Aug 9, 2023 James K. Galbraith considers why the dominant mainstream narratives about the US economy have not been borne out.

  4. The Democrats’ Disastrous Debt Deal
    galbraith25_Win McNameeGetty Images_mccarthy Win McNamee/Getty Images

    The Democrats’ Disastrous Debt Deal

    Jun 6, 2023 James K. Galbraith decries the party’s willingness to play along with the Republicans’ bad-faith politicking.

  5. The Austerity Train Wreck
    galbraith24_ZEKAS LEONIDASEurokinissiAFP via Getty Images_greec train wreck ZEKAS LEONIDAS/Eurokinissi/AFP via Getty Images

    The Austerity Train Wreck

    Mar 10, 2023 James K. Galbraith shifts the blame for the recent Greek railway disaster away from the aged stationmaster who now faces prison.

  1. khrushcheva171_MIKHAIL METZELPOOLAFP via Getty Images_putinkim Mikhail Metzel/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

    Putin and Kim’s Cartoon Summit

    Nina L. Khrushcheva thinks that Russia's recent meeting with North Korea was intended primarily as a warning to the South.
  2. haykel18_MANDEL NGANAFP via Getty Images_mbs Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

    Saudi Arabia’s New Nationalism

    Bernard Haykel explains the reasoning behind the Kingdom's ongoing domestic- and foreign-policy transformation.
  3. wagner22_Lukas SchulzeGetty Images_pollution Lukas Schulze/Getty Images

    The Green Growth Mindset

    Gernot Wagner sees doctrinaire debates about capitalism as irrelevant or even deleterious to the decarbonization effort.
  4. mallochbrown17_GIANLUIGI GUERCIAAFP via Getty Images_africawomenpolitics Gianluigi Guercia/AFP via Getty Images

    Africa Is the Future of Multilateralism

    Mark Malloch-Brown explains why the continent should be at the forefront of efforts to bring about international reforms.
  5. op_yi2_PEDRO PARDOAFP via Getty Images_chinahousing Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images

    A Chinese Bubble Long in the Making

    Yi Fuxian

    The Chinese government is very good at covering up small problems, but these often pile up into much bigger ones that can no longer be ignored. The current real-estate bubble is a case in point, casting serious doubts not just on the wisdom of past policies but also on China's long-term economic future.

    traces the long roots of the country's mounting economic and financial problems.
  6. bp industrial policy Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

    Industrial Policy Is Back

    From semiconductors to electric vehicles, governments are identifying the strategic industries of the future and intervening to support them – abandoning decades of neoliberal orthodoxy in the process. Are industrial policies the key to tackling twenty-first-century economic challenges or a recipe for market distortions and lower efficiency?

  7. fischer208_DrAfter123Getty Images_AIhuman DrAfter123/Getty Images

    Is AI a Master or Slave?

    Joschka Fischer wonders whether humanity can even hope to maintain control in an era of “mega-crisis.”
  8. haldar25_BettmannGetty Images_friedmanreagan Bettmann/Getty Images

    Laying Chicago Economics to Rest

    Antara Haldar

    From breakthroughs in behavioral economics to mounting evidence in the real world, there is good reason to think that the economic orthodoxy of the past 50 years now has one foot in the grave. The question is whether the mainstream economics profession has gotten the memo.

    looks back on 50 years of neoclassical economic orthodoxy and the damage it has wrought.
  9. delong254_ Samuel CorumGetty Images_january6riot Samuel Corum/Getty Images

    America’s Broken Civic Bargain

    J. Bradford DeLong worries that Republicans have abandoned one of the core principles that sustains a democracy over time.

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