The years of the Great Depression were a superb time for economists because people not knowing what could be done or what should be done would always assume that maybe an economist had the answer. If you were just a lawyer in Washington, you were nobody. But if you were an economist, you might have the answer.
John Kenneth GalbraithInflation does not lubricate trade but by rescuing traders from their errors of optimism or stupidity.
John Kenneth GalbraithOne of the best ways of avoiding necessary and even urgent tasks is to seem to be busily employed on things that are already done.
John Kenneth GalbraithAccording to the experience of all but the most accomplished jugglers, it is easier to keep one ball in the air than many.
John Kenneth GalbraithIn the world of minor lunacy the behaviour of both the utterly rational and the totally insane seems equally odd.
John Kenneth GalbraithThe accepted ideas of any period are singularly those that serve the dominant economic interest...What economists believe and teach, whether in the United States or in the Soviet Union, is rarely hostile to the institutions - the private business enterprise, the Communist Party - that reflect the dominant economic power. Not to notice this takes effort, although many succeed.
John Kenneth Galbraith