One hundred years ago, on October 15, one of the intellectual
titans of the 20th century was born. Had the warnings issued by
J.K. Galbraith up until his death two years ago been better
heeded by the policymakers of today, it seems unlikely we would
find ourselves so deep in the economic mire. A lifelong liberal
who advised successive Democratic presidents and presidential
candidates, Galbraith ceaselessly warned of the dangers of
financial excess. In his extensive writings — most famously The
Great Crash 1929 — Galbraith described the common events that
precede and accompany particular financial crises, events that
are conveniently forgotten by politicians, regulators and their
advisers in the good times, when financial deregulation takes
grip. Galbraith, like Keynes before him, identified the
instability of modern capitalism in terms of the drive to
accumulate excessive wealth and the fragile nature of the
financial system. As Galbraith remarked, all stock market
bubbles exhibit “seemingly imaginative, curr