The great American liberal economist, JK Galbriath, has died aged 97. For decades he eloquently derided the complacency of the wealthy in The Affluent Society (1958) and other famous works. John Kenneth Galbraith was born on October 15, 1908. He died on April 29, 2006.

The Times (London) writes:

“FOR MORE than half a century John Kenneth Galbraith was both Professor of Economics at Harvard University and a public intellectual, whose lucid writing expounded the Keynesian economics that he supported throughout his life. A product of New Deal America, he was John F. Kennedy’s Ambassador to India and adviser to Lyndon B. Johnson, but maintained that the great thrill of his life was debating with Friedrich von Hayek — and getting the better of him.

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“The most famous and best-selling economist in the world, Galbraith published the last of more than 40 books — The Economics of Innocent Fraud in 2004 — in his 96th year.”