James Galbraith discusses inequality and economic instability

As Wall Street rose to dominate the U.S. economy, income and pay inequalities in America came to dance to the tune of the credit cycle. As the reach of financial markets extended across the globe, interest rates, debt, and debt crises became the dominant forces driving the rise of economic inequality almost everywhere. Author James Galbraith, in his new book, Inequality and Instability: A Study of the World Economy Just Before the Great Crisis, challenges the standard economic notions on both the right and the left. Providing rigorous, historic evidence, Galbraith "demonstrates that finance is the driveshaft that links inequality to economic instability."

James K. Galbraith is professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, the University of Texas at Austin, where he holds the Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in Government/Business Relations. He is a leading economist whose books include The Predator State, Inequality and Industrial Change, and Created Unequal.