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John Kenneth Galbraith

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Economist

The Resume

    (October 15, 1908-April 29, 2006)
    Born in Iona Station, Ontario, Canada
    Served in the Office of Price Administration and the Strategic Bombing Survey during World War II
    Member of the board of editors of 'Fortune' magazine (1943-48)
    Professor of economics at Harvard (1948-75)
    US Ambassador to India (1961-63)
    Wrote 'American Capitalism' (1952), 'The Great Crash, 1929' (1954), 'The Affluent Society' (1958), 'The New Industrial State' (1967), 'Economics and the Public Purpose' (1973), 'The Age of Uncertainty' (1977), 'The Nature of Mass Poverty' (1979), 'Capitalism, Communism and Co-Existence' (1988), 'A Journey Through Economic Time' (1994) and 'The Economics of Innocent Fraud' (2004)

Why he might be annoying:

    He was rejected by the Army in World War II for being too tall (6'8).
    He called for 'a new socialism.'
    He was criticized as paternalistic by free market advocates.
    After the publication of 'The Great Crash,' he told a Senate committee that another crash was inevitable. He was widely blamed for the stock market dropping sharply that day.
    He enjoyed browsing bookstores for his works.
    When he complained to John F. Kennedy about a New York Times profile, 'I didn't see why they had to call me arrogant,' the president replied, 'I don't see why not. Everybody else does.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was married to Catherine Atwater for 69 years until his death.
    He donated part of his book royalties to the Harvard economics department.
    His lectures at Harvard were standing room only.
    Nobel Prize winning econmist Amaryta Sen said that 'The Affluent Society' is so influential it gets taken for granted: 'It's like reading Hamlet and deciding it's full of quotations.'
    He quipped, 'Economists are most economical of ideas. They make the ones they learned in graduate school last a lifetime.'
    He is one of a handful of people to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom twice: from Harry Truman (1946) and Bill Clinton (2000).

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 7 Votes: 14.29% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 6 Votes: 83.33% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 70 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 15 Votes: 53.33% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 18 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 16 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 17 Votes: 58.82% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 28 Votes: 67.86% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 15 Votes: 53.33% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 62 Votes: 66.13% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 21 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 16 Votes: 56.25% Annoying