Thanks Daniel, Galbraith is certainly a national treasure. Here is the citation -- at least the one I know of: Galbraith, J. K. 1954. The Great Crash (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin). 138: At any given time there exists an inventory of undiscovered embezzlenent. This inventory -- it should perhaps be called the bezzle -- amounts at any moment to many millions of dollars .... In good times people are relaxed, trusting and money is plentiful. But even though money is plentiful, there are always people who need more. Under these circumstances the rate of embezzlement grows, the rate of discovery falls off, and bezzle increases rapidly. In depression all of this is reversed."
Daniel Davies wrote:
JK Galbraith defined the concept of 'the bezzle' as the increment to national wealth during that charmed interval when the con man knows he has got hold of the victim's money, but the victim doesn't yet realise he's lost it. The bezzle is the intermediate step on the road to 'poof'.
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Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
