John Kenneth Galbraith Quotes
There is an enormous thrust in our time to have a simple answer. And that simple answer is that all depends on Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve. And Alan, who is an old acquaintance of mine, is a marvelous performer in the impression he gives of enormously great perception.
Galbraith, John Kenneth. The Economics of Innocent Fraud: Truth for Our Time. Houghton Mifflin, 2004.
The ‘Fed’ refers to the Federal Reserve Board, the strength of which lies in its independence from politics. Some, however, believe that there should not be any entity that performs a major function in our society which is not accountable to the Executive Branch or the Congress or both.
Volcker was politically very independent and the President was facing re-election. Carter appointed him. The Federal Reserve took actions that were unpopular with most voters. Carter couldn't control the Federal Reserve. He lost the election.
Prior to that the practice of the Fed was simply to make interest rate and other decisions and never discuss or explain anything. And they never tried to use words to try and change economic behavior. See {639156} for the Fed Chairman’s practice. However in 2001 that changed and they used language to shape investor and consumer behavior.
John Kenneth Galbraith OC, also known as Ken Galbraith, was a Canadian-American economist, diplomat, public official and intellectual. A leading proponent of 20th-century American liberalism, his books on economic topics were bestsellers from the 1950s through the 2000s. As an economist, he leaned toward post-Keynesian economics from an institutionalist perspective.
