James K. Galbraith Quote

Since the 1980s, the American business cycle has been based on financial and credit bubbles, and therefore on the enrichment, through the capital markets, of a very small number of people in a very few places. Truly we have become a 'trickle-down economy' — as we were not before. A rising tide may lift all boats, but recent business cycles have been more like waves, whereby certain sectors and areas ride the peaks before crashing to the shore. This is a sign, surely, not of the social evil of inequality per se but of the instability of bubble economies, closely associated with inequality of income, wealth, and power, for which we now pay a fearsome price.


James K. Galbraith (2012), Inequality and Instability: A Study of the World Economy. p. 148; Cite in: "Muddling Towards the Next Crisis: James Kenneth Galbraith in conversation with The Straddler" at thestraddler.com, Winter 2013.


Since the 1980s, the American business cycle has been based on financial and credit bubbles, and therefore on the enrichment, through the capital...

Since the 1980s, the American business cycle has been based on financial and credit bubbles, and therefore on the enrichment, through the capital...

Since the 1980s, the American business cycle has been based on financial and credit bubbles, and therefore on the enrichment, through the capital...

Since the 1980s, the American business cycle has been based on financial and credit bubbles, and therefore on the enrichment, through the capital...