Excellent interview clip of Economist James Galbraith (John's son) talking to Bill Moyers about his new book and the failure of governments and institutions to safe guard our financial system (again, this generation). He gives excellent perspective on how the present crisis stacks up against a long history of financial crisis. He also explains why the US is still in many ways better off than most other countries in the world. This fact has eluded many gold bugs and US dollar bears over the past year, as they are confounded by the relentlessly rising greenback.

I did not study John Galbraith's body of work until I was 35 years old, in the late '90's when I initially stumbled on to his unassuming little book: "A Short History of Financial Euphoria." If you have not read it or his "The Great Crash 1929," you should. They are a great read, entertaining and incredibly enlightening about human behaviour and our cycles.

I have thought about Galbraith Sr. frequently in the past couple of years since his death. I know he would not be surprised about the present state of world markets.
History, in this case, has been very much prologue.