Mighty mindedness.(on the right)(The Economics of Innocent Fraud)(Book Review)

NEW YORK, MARCH 26

I CALLED on the legendary John Kenneth Galbraith, probably the most influential U.S. intellectual of the 20th century, and although old and housebound, he has a new book, The Economics of Innocent Fraud. The publishers are dizzy with delight over the brief (62-page) manuscript, in which the author, in his singular way, using an ironic trenchancy that shatters glass with its explosive acuity, makes his briefs. He focuses now on the modern corporation, its immunity from social control, and the apparently uncontrollable impulse to focus national skills on making bigger and better armaments. But all of this is for book-reviewing time, at which it will be appropriate to observe that the military emphasis for thirty years has been on developing discriminating, not undiscriminating, weaponry.

But one immediate concern is Mr. Galbraith's conviction that a true conservatism would take a stand against everything that is identified with George W. Bush's policies. These are, he says, thoughtless, dogmatic, and unqualified for benediction by any respectable conservative. Which is where I come in, as it happens: Mr. Galbraith invites me to denounce Bush and his policies "in the name of conservatism."

"What is it about Bush's policies that makes them unworthy of conservative benediction?"

"Their ignorance."

"What is Bush ignorant of?"

"Ricardo, for instance."