Renowned liberal economist dies

John Kenneth Galbraith

BOSTON - John Kenneth Galbraith, an influential liberal economist, best-selling author and former presidential advisor, has died . He was 97.

A Harvard professor emeritus and advisor to presidents Bill Clinton, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, Galbraith died at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where was admitted two weeks ago, his biographer said.

"He had been in failing physical health for several years but his mind was incredibly alert right up until the last couple of months," Harvard economist and biographer Richard Parker, who was with Galbraith when he died, told Reuters.

The Canadian-born economist, one of the towering economic thinkers of the century, often found himself at odds with the mainstream ideas of the day but delighted in his stubborn defence of principle.

A lifelong Democrat, Galbraith saw the widening gap between the richest and the poorest as a threat to economic stability and a "moral crime," said Parker, author of "John Kenneth Galbraith : His Life, His Politics, His Economics."

Galbraith's best-selling work, "The Affluent Society," published in 1958, advocated large government investment in parks, transportation, education and other public amenities to narrow disparities between rich and poor.

"John Kenneth Galbraith was a brilliant economist and writer and a great friend of the United Kingdom and his books will be widely read in generations to come," Chancellor Gordon Brown told Reuters.

An early opponent of the Vietnam War and outspoken critic of supply-side economics which dominated the 1980s, Galbraith taught for more than a half a century at Harvard University where few colleagues - with the marked exception of Henry Kissinger - had as much influence on American policy.

He was heavily influenced by economist John Maynard Keynes, who advocated government spending to reduce unemployment. Galbraith, who often described himself as an "evangelical Keynesian," supported a much shorter work week, the women's liberation movement and an international council to help the victims of man-made disasters.

A lanky giant who stood 6 feet 8 inches (200 cm) and often stooped before audiences, Galbraith had a rare ability to reduce complex economic theory to a level understood by the man in the street.

After the Dow Jones Industrial Average's 1,500 point climb to break the 6,500 mark in November 1996, Galbraith remarked to Reuters: "There is too much money chasing too little intelligence to manage it. It can't last."

Galbraith remained a proponent of traditional Democratic ideals even as they came to appear shrill and out of step.

"Consigning the least fortunate of our people to the neglect and despair that a purely individualist society prescribes ... is not, I submit, a sound conservative strategy," he said in his 1986 book, "A View from the Stands."

John Kenneth Galbraith was born October 15, 1908, on a farm in Ontario, Canada. He received a science degree from the University of Toronto in 1931 and three years later earned a doctorate in economics at the University of California.

His life at Harvard began as a tutor in 1934 but three years later he moved to Cambridge University, England, on a fellowship. Galbraith married the former Catherine Atwater in 1937 - the same year that he became a US citizen.

They had three sons. His wife and two of his sons were by his side when he died, said Parker.

He taught economics at Princeton University in 1939 and 1940 and in 1941 joined the Office of Price Controls. Later, Galbraith said, his office had started with no price controls and by 1943 almost every price was under control.

In 1949 Galbraith received his appointment as an economics professor at Harvard. He was a close friend and early supporter of President Kennedy, who named him ambassador to India from 1961 to 1963, the only years he did not spend at Harvard.

Galbraith also wrote speeches for two other Democratic candidates for the presidency, the late Adlai Stevenson in 1952 and 1956, and Sen. George McGovern in 1972.

- REUTERS