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“Who Are These Economists, Anyway?” by James K. Galbraith
Summary of the article
“Who Are These Economists, Anyway?” was published in fall 2009 in the NEA Higher
Education Journal. We could have never got a chance to read it if another leading economist, Paul
Krugman didn't include a paragraph about a few economists who were “swimming against the tide”
doubting the rational behavior and financial markets role in the economy in his article published in

New York Times earlier the same year. According to Galbraith, that paragraphs is a summary of the

economic era collapse (85).

In his piece, Galbraith proves that these unknown scholars did what the very best

professionals failed to and associates two groups of the “top economists” with Tweedledum and

Tweedledee characters whose perspective did not differ and took the economic crisis for granted.

and processes within it by people who care about “elegance- and in part about showing off” (86)
more than the economy.

James Galbraith reveals names of the scholars and economists whose works remained

ignored or “relegated to secondary sources” and their authors were “discouraged from academic
life” (87). In particular, Patrick Bond who regarded the crisis as probable basing his arguments on

“Marxian crisis is inevitable” (88) theory. In 2002 Dean Baker warned that if the “the housing

bubble” which refers to a normal ratio returns to its regular value too sudden it results in a crash.

Another analysis has been made by Wynne Godley and the Levy Economics Institute team. They

proved “the public budget deficits to be driven through the roof” (90) as a result of instability in the
private financial sector. Hyman Minsky's work, based on “stability breeds instability” (91) showed
that capitalist financial consistency is most likely to be ruined from inside, not to mention external
factors. In 2005, Gary Dymski presented another work which also explains why it was possibility to
avoid the crisis. It largely refers to financial fraud, economic responsibility and law.

In his article James Galbraith recognizes progressive perceptions and their founders. He

believes that nowadays top economists turned themselves into economic “Politburo”(95) and
expresses high concern about real problems that ruin the economy despite of the fact that
opportunities to deal with them exist.

List of terms

Americanized Marxism – unit of the Marxism theory.
Bubble detection – crisis prevention tool (Dean Baker).
Capitalism – economic system characterized by privately owned industries operated for profit.
Control fraud – fraud committed on purpose by people in control.
Debt accumulation- investment greater than savings.
Economic growth – the change in the flow of expenditures in the economy (the National Income
and Product Accounts).

Keynesliness – John Maynard Keynes theories.

The Marxian view – Marxian perception of the crisis.
Financial bubbles -indicators of crash (Dean Baker).
The Ponzi scheme – refinancing scheme described in Hyman Minsky's work.
Radical movements – social movements of 1960s.
“Salwater” (“new classicals”) and “freshwater” (“new Keynesians”) - two groups described in Paul
Krugman's article.
Tweedledum and Tweedledee – same groups in James Galbraith's perception.
Arguments
1. Scholars and economists who predicted the future of the world's economy remained unknown.
2. Specialists considered to be “tops of academic economics” (Galbraith, 85) failed to justify their
status.
3. Works that observe the nature of the economic collapse exist, however, they are not available as
primary sources. Their authors are ignored.
4. Method's of Dean Baker, Wynne Godley, Patrick Bond, Hyman Minsky, Gary Dymsky and other
scholars proved that the financial crisis could have been avoided.
5. The society should pay more attention to the economic system and its problems.

Citations

1. “To be sure, the accusation that a scientist – let alone an entire science – was seduced by beauty
over truth is fairly damaging. But it's worth asking, what exactly was beautiful about this idea?”
(Galbraith, 86).
2. “To this day, seduction is known, in some corners of economics, at least, as the Ricardian Vice”
(Galbraith, 87).
3. “A key property of non-linear system is the appearance within them of phase transitions: from
single equilibria, to two- four- and eight-period repeating cycles, and finally to deterministic chaos” (Galbraith, 92).
Works Cited
James K. Galbraith. “Who Are These Economists, Anyway?” The NEA Higher Education Journal. Fall 2009: 85-97. Print.