Tuesday, February 08, 2005
200-word Erudite Redneck book review: "The Economics of Innocent Fraud," by John Kenneth Galbraith
John Kenneth Galbraith, The Economics of Innocent Fraud: Truth for Our Time (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004).
By The Erudite Redneck
This is a little bitty book (62 pages) that could be Galbraith’s swan song, since he’s, like, as old as Methuselah (97, actually). It’s in the spirit of an eighteenth-century pamphlet of social-political commentary.
Here are just a few of the scores of ideas he crammed into this tiny thing:
There IS no “public sector,” especially in the military; public money goes so directly into private hands, guided by private goals for selfish ends, that the notion of a “public sector” is laughable.
The pretense that shareholders have any power within the corporate structure of “public” companies is a joke; management has all the power.
The two are intertwined. Sadly, the joke is on all of us.
It’s all “hidden” under the guise of a “market system,” a label that sounds benign because it says nothing of the human players at work.
“Innocent” fraud? Galbraith: “Innocent, lawful fraud has an undoubted role in private life and public discourse … however, there is no spoken recognition of that fact. There is, to emphasize, no sense of guilt or responsibility.”
Galbraith’s ideas are as sharp as ever. The writing, however, is not his best. Legendary authors seldom get the editing they deserve.
END
By The Erudite Redneck
This is a little bitty book (62 pages) that could be Galbraith’s swan song, since he’s, like, as old as Methuselah (97, actually). It’s in the spirit of an eighteenth-century pamphlet of social-political commentary.
Here are just a few of the scores of ideas he crammed into this tiny thing:
There IS no “public sector,” especially in the military; public money goes so directly into private hands, guided by private goals for selfish ends, that the notion of a “public sector” is laughable.
The pretense that shareholders have any power within the corporate structure of “public” companies is a joke; management has all the power.
The two are intertwined. Sadly, the joke is on all of us.
It’s all “hidden” under the guise of a “market system,” a label that sounds benign because it says nothing of the human players at work.
“Innocent” fraud? Galbraith: “Innocent, lawful fraud has an undoubted role in private life and public discourse … however, there is no spoken recognition of that fact. There is, to emphasize, no sense of guilt or responsibility.”
Galbraith’s ideas are as sharp as ever. The writing, however, is not his best. Legendary authors seldom get the editing they deserve.
END
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Galbraith is my hero. Sorry to hear his work isn't getting the editorial help it needs. He's an icon.
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