Excellent interview clip of Economist James Galbraith (John's son) talking to Bill Moyers about his new book and the failure of governments and institutions to safe guard our financial system (again, this generation). He gives excellent perspective on how the present crisis stacks up against a long history of financial crisis. He also explains why the US is still in many ways better off than most other countries in the world. This fact has eluded many gold bugs and US dollar bears over the past year, as they are confounded by the relentlessly rising greenback.
I did not study John Galbraith's body of work until I was 35 years old, in the late '90's when I initially stumbled on to his unassuming little book: “A Short History of Financial Euphoria.” If you have not read it or his “The Great Crash 1929,” you should. They are a great read, entertaining and incredibly enlightening about human behaviour and our cycles.
I have thought about Galbraith Sr. frequently in the past couple of years since his death. I know he would not be surprised about the present state of world markets.
History, in this case, has been very much prologue.
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Hello Danielle
I have been reading about the US trade deficits, how much other countries own of US treasuries, the large size of the US debt, and how these are troubling factors for their economy. Would you please comment on the respective Canadian economic metrics and what our shortcomings are? As well, would you discuss how Canada 'stacks up' on the international economic stage (for e.g. relative to the US – how will Canada weather this storm, and who in the world will weather the storm the best and worst?)?
Thanks
Laura
Although Mr. Galbraith makes many good points, I find him much less reassuring on the issue of the rapidly growing U.S. debt. He thinks that there will always be foreigners ready to purchase American debt. Perhaps, but I doubt that they will do it indefinitely for rock bottom returns.