Dear friend:
We are saddened at the lost of John Kenneth Galbraith. This regal egret of an economist, this embodiment of the best of Democratic liberalism, died on April 29.
Galbraith wrote several times for The Progressive, most recently in 1999 for our ninetieth anniversary issue. Entitled “Free Market Fraud,” he decried the practice of CEOs setting their own compensation, as well as “the full-fledged takeover by private industry of public decision-making and government spending.” In an interview by Amitbah Pal in our October 2000 issue, he denounced economists and intellectuals “who pursue what is comfortable to the rich.” (You can read that interview, and Pal's own assessment of Galbraith, at our website, www.progressive.org.)
For more than two decades, Galbraith served as a member of The Progressive’s editorial advisory board. He always cheered us on. His final note to us was dated December 8, 2005.
“My commitment to The Progressive is indeed as strong as ever,” he wrote. “Liberal integrity was never so badly needed. We certainly cannot do without The Progressive. I have not been in the best of health in the past year but, here, nonetheless, my continued affirmation of what you do. Do not relent.”
We shall not.
Sincerely,
Matthew RothschildEditor, The ProgressiveP.S. If you know anyone in Mill Valley, California, please invite themto come to my speech, "Impeachment Now," this Friday night, May 5, atthe Throckmorton Theatre, starting at 8:00 pm. (And there's ameet-and-greet beforehand at 7:00 pm.) For more information, click here.