The Economics of Innocent Fraud: Truth for Our Time was Harvard economist John Kenneth Galbraith's final book, published by Houghton Mifflin in 2004.

[1] It is a 62-page essay that recapitulates themes—such as the dominance of corporate power in the public sector and the role of advertising in shaping consumer demand—found in earlier works.

In twelve short chapters, Galbraith summarizes what he takes to be a number of types of 'fraud'—some innocent, some less so—inherent in corporate-dominated economic life at the end of the 20th century.

His use of the word fraud is not legalistic, but designates what he sees as the divergence between 'approved belief—what I have elsewhere called conventional wisdom—and the reality' (p. ix).

The 'frauds' highlighted are: In three concluding chapters he makes a case for impartial government oversight of corporate behavior; returns to his theme of corporate dominance in the affairs of the state, particularly in the military and defense, for its own enrichment; and claims that additional tax relief for corporations serves no public good.