Inequality and Instability: A Study of the World Economy Just Before the Great Crisis
"[P]otentially groundbreaking new methodology . . . Galbraith discredits a number of shibboleths of the economics profession. . . . In this rich study, the author brings both transparency and a fresh approach to a profession where a shake-up seems more than overdue. Economics specialists will enjoy this book, but so too will general readers disenchanted with current economic orthodoxies." --Kirkus Reviews"InInequality and Instability,James K. Galbraith brings to bear his considerable experience in government and academia to examine one of the most pressing issues of our time. In this accessible and far-reaching volume, he investigates not only the depth and breadth of inequality in Europe, America, and elsewhere, but also its implications for politics and society. It's no surprise that Galbraith, who is well known for having pioneered new understandings of economic inequality, leaves no stone unturned in his discussion of metrics and methodologies...It is a must-read for anyone who wishes to understand our political and economic era."--Joseph E. Stiglitz, author ofFreefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy,winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics"Inequality is at the heart of our modern economic predicament,but its kaleidoscopic nature makes it as hard to summarize as it is to understand. In this important book, Jamie Galbraith and colleagues develop a powerful new measure of global inequality trends and show how it can be used to shed new light on everything from economic growth to voter turnout. The result is a truly pathbreaking work of scholarship."--Barry Eichengreen, author ofExorbitant Privilege"While most economists 'slept' and some were busying themselves making sure there is no level playing field, Jamie Galbraith was one of the few who kept on insisting on the dangers of runaway inequality, financial-sector driven growth and crony capitalism. In this book, he takes the reader on a journey through the years that preceded the financial meltdown, skillfully links inequality and macroeconomics, and, after showing the why and the how of the crisis, points the way out of it." --Branko Milanovic, author ofWorlds Apart: Measuring International and Global Inequality"Based on a mountain of new data, this book undermines much of what scholars thought they knew about economic inequality. James Galbraith's readable and compelling dissections of how financial bubbles and macroeconomic forces shape inequality and its effects on society and the state are seminal. Inequality and Instability is a work not just for scholars, but for citizens." --Thomas Ferguson, Professor of Political Science, University of Massachusetts, Boston"The most comprehensive examination to date of the connection between the financial sector, the Achilles heel of 'free enterprise' economies, and income inequality across countries. Galbraith and his fellow researchers at the University of Texas Inequality Project demonstrate how the seeds of the current economic crisis were sown by the refusal to confront and reverse an unequalizing worldwide spiral of income disparity. This could be the empirical Bible for the Occupy movement."--William Darity, Arts and Sciences Professor of Public Policy, Economics, and African American Studies, Duke University"Galbraith's timely and provocative book adds some economic and statistical ballast to the vague rhetorical slogans of the Occupy protesters. Drawing on meticulous academic research, it argues that the main source of the growing inequality across the world in recent years has been not industrial change, educational reform, or geopolitical shift but the financialization of the modern world."  --Foreign Affairs"Galbraith's book presents an extremely varied and nutritious fare for all of those who want to find out more about the things that they 'were afraid to ask' during the last twenty years: why did inequality increase so much and who benefited from it? But Galbraith did notice the increase, wrote about it, and here in a sort of collected works, are his essays, fully vindicated by time. Not many economists can say so."  --Journal of Economic Literature