Q 6

PLAYBOY: A few years ago, The Harvard Lampoon presented you with a pink Cadillac. Did you enjoy that experience of upper-end consumption?

John Kenneth Galbraith: I kept it for a year to show gratitude. But it was a bit large and wouldn't fit into my driveway, so I made a present of it to the public-television station here in Boston, which auctioned it off for a very large sum. It was a Cadillac Eldorado convertible and production of them had stopped, so it had become a classic. I think it brought far more at auction than what the students had paid for it.

Q 7

PLAYBOY: Did you find that self-promotion was crucial in advancing your career? And perhaps also a little vanity?

John Kenneth Galbraith: Unquestionably. Nobody can overlook my great height. But I've always been tempted to speak well of my own work. I suspect other people may have noticed that. And it's not that you should avoid vanity. That's impossible. The important thing is to be aware of it and laugh at it and on occasion invite other people to laugh at it as well. Then vanity isn't quite so objectionable.

Q 8

PLAYBOY: Would you have a drink with Milton Friedman? Or isn't it possible for a liberal to drink with a conservative?

John Kenneth Galbraith: Milton Friedman and I have been friends all our lives. He occasionally gets annoyed with me, as he did a few months ago. I said how good it was that the British government was suffering all the hardships associated with his economic designs, how much better that the British should be enduring them than the Americans.

Right or wrong, I've always believed in maintaining civil communications with civil people with whom I disagree. William F. Buckley and Milton Friedman come to mind. They're both eminently civil people. If someone were violently hostile, I wouldn't maintain that communication.

Q 9

PLAYBOY: Is it hard to admit mistakes?

John Kenneth Galbraith: I've made mistakes. Lots of them. But I've always comforted myself with Winston Churchill's words: "I have often had to eat my words and I have found them a wholesome diet."

There are many things I would have done better. When I was running price control in World War Two, I did that with a kind of stiff-necked obstinancy that aroused the antipathy of the maximum number of people with whom I did business. If I were doing that again, I would be much more mellow. And in my books, there are obvious mistakes that I would correct.

Q 10

PLAYBOY: Does deficit financing play any role in your personal monetary policy?

John Kenneth Galbraith: No. I've never been in debt in my life. I've never been short of money. Whenever I've had a book coming out, I've gone to considerable lengths to make sure that the revenue would not accrue unnecessarily to the publisher.

Q 11

PLAYBOY: So you pay your credit-card balance in full every month?

John Kenneth Galbraith: I don't use credit cards. I pay by check. One of the great advantages of being well known is that people accept your checks. And I think I should usually have about $100 in my pocket.

Q 12

PLAYBOY: Are you good with figures or do you rely on a calculator?

John Kenneth Galbraith: Well, I have a very good sense of magnitude. That's something I learned as a graduate student in California. You've always got to keep the general scale in mind. For example, if you're cutting the income tax, you're not going to make it up by increasing the revenues from Customs duties. The first is large. The second is insignificant.

But although I don't carry one around, I always have a calculator on my desk. I consider the small calculator one of the few modern inventions that I cherish.