A Journey Through Economic Time: A Firsthand View

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Now in paperback, Galbraith's eyewitness account of the economic trends, watersheds, and foibles of our time is one of his most popular and accessible books yet, translated into a dozen languages. From World War I and the Russian Revolution to the implications of communism's fall, from the "superbly insane decade of the twenties" and the Great Depression to the Reagan era and beyond, the renowned economist here exhibits unmatched wisdom and scope. Whether he is analyzing Keynesian theory or the end of colonialism, the forging of Kennedy's New Frontier, or the "unintended history of the 1980s," this master narrator epitomizes the hindsight and the vision of one who actively influenced many of the events so colorfully chronicled here.

Customer Reviews:

As history, it makes sense. Mainly frightful!.......2005-01-10

I like the early parts of this book best. John Kenneth Galbraith has been an economist with first-hand experience in a lot of areas: Canadian Scotch farmers, the big stock market crash, wage and price controls, post-war economic assessment of strategic bombing, post-war aid, Keynesian stimulation of economic demand, the political views of businessmen, but people who read this book are most likely to notice how fond he is of economic programs which benefit the less fortunate at the expense of those who are most comfortable with things as they are. Though published in 1994, this book praises Social Security as a miraculously successful program passed in 1935, based initially on benefits "at distinctly modest, even primitive levels, old age pensions" (p. 93), though opponents might complain. "An Ohio Chamber of Commerce official of strong historical bent found that similar measures had brought the fall of Rome." (p. 94). Ohio??? The state and the United States are still evenly divided on which way to head politically when economic matters are paramount, but any benefit that does not increase to reflect increases in salary levels is likely to seem primitive in this century.

I once studied antitrust laws for a few years, with excellent instruction from some of the top professors, but it is not surprising that this knowledge rarely brings me riches or even meaningful employment since conflicts of interest can be a bar to active involvement. As a legal topic, it is like trying to apply philosophy to promote freedom. As Galbraith puts it,

"For liberals in this time the antitrust laws were a comprehensive economic therapy. Given any evident misuse of market power, more broadly any defective economic performance, the answer was clear: enforce the antitrust laws. This, then and later, became, on frequent occasion, the ready recourse of the devoid liberal mind." (p. 48).

"These were not repealed; they were simply not enforced. This was, save by the lawyers involved, one of the less noticed developments of the Reagan years." (p. 49).

Galbraith's memory of the Reagan years must have been fresh when he wrote of that triumph for the view that "The domestic threat was the federal government, and specifically its power of taxation as this might be used on behalf of those outside the favored community." (p. 211). The surprising thing about A JOURNEY THROUGH ECONOMIC TIME by John Kenneth Galbraith is how often he can identify policies which have changed drastically in the last century. (Surtax rates went up to 65 percent on incomes over $1,000,000 in 1918. (p. 26)). Some steps even thwarted the rich hoards of previously inflated currencies.

"The obvious solution was to diminish the regular currency outstanding by requiring the exchange of the existing notes for a smaller but functionally effective number. This, with characteristic pragmatism, the French did in the early months after the war. It had the further practical effect of denying to erstwhile black-market operators and those who had enjoyed special privileges under the collaborationist Vichy government any continuing advantage from their previous political reward; it was not wise to confess guilt by bringing in a currency hoard for exchange." (p. 143).

World War II was unusual in that the economics of warfare had been refined to produce as much wealth as possible for the middle class in America, as young economists who had been working in the New Deal were sure to appreciate. Galbraith was sure that his efforts controlling wages and prices had resulted in the greatest possible expansion of production.

"As the demands of war procurement converged on the economy, there were two possible designs for enhancing return, for increasing profits. One was to raise prices; the other was to expand production. The price controls and associated wage restraints made the increase of production the only available course. Profit maximization, not a subordinate goal in wartime, was served horizontally by more production, not vertically by higher prices. Though not greatly noticed at the time, the price and wage controls had a strongly functional role in expanding wartime production." (pp. 117-118).

I can remember when people who did not have oil wells complained that the only way to get rich was to have an oil well, because a depletion allowance in the income tax system allowed oil well owners to keep more of the money they made. The top tax rate was over 90 percent during World War II, after having been cut by President Hoover to avoid a depression:

"A taxpayer with an income of $5,000, a very comfortable return in those days, had his or her tax cut by two-thirds. It went from $16.88 to $5.63. Someone with $10,000, roughly the equivalent of $100,000 today, saw his tax go from $120 down to $65." (p. 78).

The federal budget was a few billion then. The previous war had been a significant expense, and John Kenneth Galbraith waits until Chapter 4 of this book to join with John Maynard Keynes (THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE PEACE) in an attempt to show that political views which settled in the minds of the negotiators of the Peace Treaty at the end of the Great War of 1914-1918 were an economic catastrophe. Money works best when people spend it for things they need, and most unpredictably when it is borrowed in dire distress and never repaid. "President Calvin Coolidge was adamant in expressing the reputable economic mood of the time: `They hired the money, didn't they?' " (p. 32).

"Besides destroying a political and economic structure that had long been in place, the war reshaped for all ensuing time the relationship between nations great and small, rich and impoverished. . . . The First World War was, indeed, rightly called the Great War; World War II was its last battle." (p. 10).

dont give this book a low rating becaused it confused you.......2004-04-08

"On page 191 appaernetly he feels it was the "perverse genius" of Richard Nixon to make Americans distrust government through such actions as Watergate." Stacy Redding ..........actually i have heard several peaople atribute watergate to being a plot "to make Americans distrust government." ...And it was also one of the most influencual impacts of water gate... And if you put this scenerio into a propper historical context it dosnt cmopletely not make sense.

"For example, Does JKG really beleive that Watergate was a plot by Nixon to get Joe Sixpack to distrust government" stacy redding

Actually several authors have also held this view

Harvard must be capable of producing better than this.......2002-07-27

The journey through economic times does not begin with the begining of recorded history, but in the late middle ages. JKG then fastforwards over the next 8 pages to WW1. For the first half of half of the rest of the book JKG indecisevly meanders between a left leaning history, mostly of the US, and his own personal experiances in government jobs and at various shools. By the second half of the book he has apparently made up his mind it is to be a story about the underpriveleged and thier holier than thou defenders, most notably JKG himself, against the evil ambitions of the comfortable class. An example on page 174 of a conspiracy of the comfortable class to keep the poor down with a tax cut rather than increased social spending consisted in part of the members of the State Department having a "Galbraith Early Warning System" to warn other members of the comfortable class cabal of the times when JKG was returning from India to save the country from the tax cut. On page 191 appaernetly he feels it was the "perverse genius" of Richard Nixon to make Americans distrust government through such actions as Watergate. The writing is unclear and confusing throughout the entire book. For example, Does JKG really beleive that Watergate was a plot by Nixon to get Joe Sixpack to distrust government, Or does JKG just have extreme difficulty string a few words together into a coherent whole. I still do not know.

When I began reading this I tried to think of a more pathetic attempt at a book on economics that I read in my life. After many remembrances of the many economic books that I have read I was able to think of one in which I only made it through a few chapters. In it some author I do not recall the name of used long term technical analysis to predict a global depression in the late 1980s through the 1990s. Several more chapters into the Galbraith book I changed my mind, this was worse than the book by the false profit of doom.

While I feel that most economics books are woefully lacking in statistics this has to be the worse of the lot. In the rare event that there is a statistic it is more of an inept and incomplete attempt to convince the reader of something than provide actual information.

On the positive side, in my exhaustive search throughout this entire tome (it is not really all that long-it just feals that way) I was able to find a singlr quasi interesting albeit incomplete sentence on income distribution on page 134.

With writing like this how does Harvard do so well in the rankings?

Hatching economy.......2000-06-09

After the first world war the old world order begin to collapse.The great powers were no longer real great powers and then a new world order begin to form.This book gives you a realistic point of view about the whole economic events after WW1 till the end of communism.Reading this book also teaches the close contact between economy and the future of earth by showing us the collapsing empires,ideas and utopias because of economy.

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This comprehensive handbook provides a solid foundation in helping skills related to successful funeral service practice.

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The first part of their culinary adventure, the Pollacks review nearly 200 St. Louis restaurants, from bar food to Brazilian, European to Asian, and many more!

Joe Pollack's Guide to St. Louis Restaurants

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Joe Pollack's Guide to St. Louis Restaurants
Joe Pollack
Manufacturer: Chicago Review Press
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ASIN: 1556521448

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Live your dream every day

Very painless, fun read

Recommended to me

Great advice for young adults

Entertaining and Educational

The Monk and the Riddle: The Art of Creating a Life While Making a Living

Manufacturer: Harvard Business School Press
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Binding: Paperback

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Prospective entrepreneurs may think they know everything there is to know about starting a business in Silicon Valley. They can draw up business plans, have meetings with venture capitalists, maybe even get funded and actually launch a start-up. However, in The Monk and the Riddle, Silicon Valley sage Randy Komisar reasons that's only half the equation for success. And it may not be the important half. Komisar has worked with a number of companies--Apple, LucasArts Entertainment (the gaming division of George Lucas's empire), and WebTV among them--and has come to a rather startling conclusion: if you can't see yourself doing this business for the rest of your life, don't start it. In other words, he wants to see passion and purpose in business, not just spreadsheets and a by-the-numbers business model.

To illustrate, Komisar takes the reader through a hypothetical Silicon Valley start-up, with an eager entrepreneur named Lenny trying to get funding for an online casket-selling business. As Komisar helps Lenny find the real purpose of the business, the passion behind the revenue projections, he reflects back on his life as an entrepreneur. Komisar emerges as a master storyteller, the kind of guy you'd feel honored to share a bottle of wine with. And you believe his conclusion: "When all is said and done, the journey is the reward." It's great if you've made billions on the journey, but the important thing is that you do something you can truly throw yourself into. --Lou Schuler

Book Description

What would you be willing to do for the rest of your life . . . ?

It's a question most of us consider only hypothetically-opting instead to "do what we have to do" to earn a living. But in the critically acclaimed bestseller The Monk and the Riddle, entrepreneurial sage Randy Komisar asks us to answer it for real. The book's timeless advice-to make work pay not just in cash, but in experience, satisfaction, and joy-will be embraced by anyone who wants success to come not just from what they do, but from who they are. At once a fictional tale of Komisar's encounters with a would-be entrepreneur and a personal account of how Komisar found meaning not in work's rewards but in work itself, the book illustrates what's wrong with the mainstream thinking that we should sacrifice our lives to make a living. Described by Fortune.com as "part personal essay, part fictional narrative and part meditation on the nature of work and life," The Monk and the Riddle is essential reading on the art of creating a life while making a living.

"Belongs in a category by itself . . . The best thing I've read all year."
-San Francisco Examiner

"A timely book."
-USA Today

"A self-help manual and business fable rolled into one."
-The Times, London

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Transcending the typical leadership book model of lists and frameworks on how to succeed in business, The Monk and the Riddle is a lively and humorous narrative about the education of a unique Silicon Valley insider. Currently a virtual CEO who provides leadership on-demand to several renowned companies, Komisar's unique role was recently described as a combined professional mentor, minister without portfolio, in-your-face investor, troubleshooter, and door opener. But even more interesting than what he does is how and why he does it. Komisar has found a way to turn an ambitious and challenging worklife into his life's work. The book is at once a portal into the inner workings of Silicon Valley--from how startups get launched, to how venture capitalists do their deals, to how head-hunters make their matches--and a deeply personal account of how one mover and shaker found a payoff bigger than money. The Monk and the Riddle imparts valuable lessons about the differences between leadership and management, passion and commitment, and the meaning of professional and personal success. When all is said and done, writes Komisar, the journey is the reward.

Customer Reviews:

Live your dream every day.......2007-10-20

Story of an angel investor and "want-to-be entrepreneurs". Useful look into the world of startups and finance as well as the theory that you should live and enjoy every day of your life.

Very painless, fun read.......2007-09-27

I definitely got what I had wanted from this book. Randy Komisar's book not only introduces us readers to the world of VC's, but also colorfully illustrates the advice we're always given as kids: Do what you've wanted to do all your life, now.
Komisar proves, through the world of Silicon Valley, in the better faster cheaper business, that people are still forgetting to do what they want, and instead, switch tracks to the Deferred Life Plan. Bad idea. Luckily, in the midst of this entire crash and burn of multitudes of aspiring yet bound-to-fail businesses, Komisar proposes a simply put solution to this entire mindset! Find your passions, find your life goals, and ask yourself one simple question (which I won't put down here, for the sake of minimizing the spoilers some of which I may've already spilt). READ THE BOOK!

Recommended to me.......2007-05-14

This book was recommended to me while reading another book. It is very useful if you like business. I tell others who have great business ideas to read it first then get back to me.

Great advice for young adults.......2007-04-03

I have never read a book that gave better advice to someone entering the workforce. I read it then sent a copy to my brother, who just graduated from college. It helps you find the right path for your life.

Entertaining and Educational.......2006-10-29

Randy Komisar is one of Silicon Valley's superstars and very much the real deal. The Monk and the Riddle is a light read that is both entertaining and educational. For anybody interested in the valley, start-ups or just good writing, I strongly recommend picking up a copy.

Customer Reviews:

Helpful Hints.......2004-02-18

I picked up this book expecting the same old same old regurgitated information and found myself pleasantly surprised. Gorter's information was insightful, fresh, useful and in a format easy to read and understand. I would recommend this book to anyone in need of helpful information.

How To Get That Job.......2004-02-17

Great information for anyone seeking employment be they novice or experienced. Thumbs up on this one.

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Learning for Earning: Your Route to Success
John A. Wanat , E. Weston Pfeiffer , and Richard Van Gulik
Manufacturer: Goodheart-Wilcox Publisher
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ASIN: 1566374596

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LEARNING FOR EARNING: YOUR ROUTE TO SUCCESS [TEACHER'S WRAPAROUND EDITION]
John A.; E. Weston Pfeiffer; and Richard Van Gulik Wanat
Manufacturer: Goodheart-Willcox Company Tinley Park, IL
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ASIN: 1590705521

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Learning for Earning: Your Route to Success Student Activity Guide

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Learning for Earning: Your Route to Success/Answer Key
John A. Wanat , E. Weston Pfeiffer , and Richard Van Gulik
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Learning for Earning: Your Route to Success/Student Activity Guide
John A. Wanat , E. Weston Pfeiffer , and Richard Van Gulik
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ASIN: 0870067958

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Learning for Earning: Your Route to Success/Teacher's Resource Guide
John A. Wanat , E. Weston Pfeiffer , and Richard Van Gulik
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ASIN: 1566371155

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Teacher's Resource Guide: Learning for Earning- Your Route to Success
John A Wanat , E. Weston Pfeiffer , and Richard Van Gulik
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Learning for Earning: Your Route to Success/Teacher's Resource Binder
Don Donini , Joanna Gray , and Karen Gambee
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Learning for Earning: Your Route to Success/Transparency Packet
John A. Wanat , E. Weston Pfeiffer , and Richard Van Gulik
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