Customer Reviews

Galbraith, Harrington, Heilbroner: Economics and Dissent in an Age of Optimism

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Because Galbraith, Harrington, and Heilbroner each stress a strong government role in the economy, they appear here in the same book. Together they represent the outer-left limits of acceptable influence on Washington policy makers. In today's neo-liberal atmosphere, their thinking may seem dated, yet the issues and prescriptions they raise are still topical.

Okroi's treatment is non-technical with no graphs etc. to bewilder the non-professional. Though some familiarity with standard terminology is assumed, he makes his points in a style that kept me interested. For Galbraith, the corporation is the basic institution of the modern economy. Therefore anyone with a case against corporate America should be interested in his reasoning. Moreover, Galbraith's innovative use of Keynes is made both understandable and informative. Harrington's democratic socialism raises that whole provocative topic which functions as a kind of leitmotiv throughout the remainder of the book. Heilbroner, something of a seer and the most unusual of the three, sees little hope for a capitalism being displaced by economic planning. It's interesting to compare his dour direction with today's heady neo-liberal trend.

In the last chapter, the book's most topical issue is raised: the disconnect between politics and economics. Okroi maintains America's economic reality is that of an oligopoly, while the discourse remains that of free market concepts. He believes this rupture between `what is' and `what we see', has produced something of a crisis in politics. On one hand, our parties embrace the myths of liberalism while having to confront the realities of corporatism, on the other. The net result is a decline of politics, a development very much a fact to those observing the decline of our two major parties. Here Okroi proves a keen analyst in his own right. All in all, this is a good book for the non-professional with an interest in leftish political economy.