"What Galbraith understood, and what later researchers (including this author) have proved, is that Adam Smith's "invisible hand" β the notion that the individual pursuit of maximum profit guides capitalist markets to efficiency β is so invisible because, quite often, it's just not there. Unfettered markets often produce too much of some things, such as pollution, and too little of other things, such as basic research. As Bruce Greenwald and I have shown, whenever information is imperfect β that is, always β markets are inefficient; hence the need for government action."
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Academics from the United StatesAcademics from CanadaEconomists from CanadaUnited States Ambassadors to IndiaEconomists from the United States
Original Language: English
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Sources
Joseph Stiglitz, "John Kenneth Galbraith understood capitalism as lived β not as theorized", The Christian Science Monitor (Dec 28, 2006)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Kenneth_Galbraith
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John Kenneth Galbraith
1908 β 2006
kanadisch-amerikanischer Γkonom
238 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by John Kenneth Galbraith β
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