Galbraith, John Kenneth 
1908 - .
Canadian-born US economist 

who criticized the neoclassical view that in the economy market forces were in a state approximating perfect competition. He suggested that the "affluent society" develops an economic imbalance, devoting too many resources to the production of consumer goods and not enough to public services and infrastructure. Galbraith was critical of the view put forward by the advocates of monetarism that state spending was unable to reduce unemployment. His commitment to the development of the public sector was in sympathy with Keynesian economics. In his book The Affluent Society 1958, he documents the tendency of free-market capitalism to create private splendour and public squalor. Galbraith became a US citizen 1937. He was a professor of economics at Harvard 1949-75, worked for the Office of Price Administration during World War II, and served as ambassador to India 1961-63. He was an adviser to President Kennedy and the Democratic presidential candidates Adlai Stevenson, Eugene McCarthy, and George McGovern, and believed strongly in a governmental role in economic planning. Galbraith argued that the motivation of large corporations depended on the influence of the "technostructure" or departmental management, and that such corporations were motivated more by the desire for security and expansion than the desire to maximize profits. Advertising was seen as a particularly important means of achieving market power and secure expansion. On the other hand, corporations were constrained by the "countervailing power" of other firms, trade unions, consumer groups, and governments. His works include American Capitalism 1952, The New Industrial State 1967, Economics and the Public Purpose 1973, and The Culture of Containment 1992. He has also written novels.