Editor’s Note: This is an easy reading book considering it is written by an economist. It’s also one that I find myself saying “that’s simply not true” when absorbing certain of Galbraith’s theories. But I recommend it highly for anyone trying (as I am) to figure out exactly what is going on in the American and world economy as it gives real clarity to a less-publicized view of what we are experiencing. That is that our most accepted economic premise – that growth is inevitable and eternal – is flawed. Galbraith attempts to underpin his thoughts with history before going onto recommending four actions that could help stabilize our future. But more than anything, I agree and appreciate his premise: that the American economy simply is not on an eternal growth trajectory, as most economists and politicians would like us to believe and that until we accept and address that fact, we are inviting further disaster.  

Excerpt: “To put it most briefly, these doctrines introduced the concept of economic growth and succeeded, over several decades, to condition most Americans to the belief that growth was not only desirable but also normal, perpetual, and expected. Growth became the solution to most (if not quite all) of the ordinary economic problems, especially poverty and unemployment. We lived in a culture of growth; to question it was, well, countercultural.”

http://www.amazon.com/The-End-Normal-Crisis-Future/dp/1451644922