Comments on: 6 Economists Everyone Should Know.

By: Joost

Joost — Sat, 05 May 2007 11:01:34 +0000

Surely Marx should be on that list

By: Andy Horning

Andy Horning — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 16:27:40 +0000

Adam Smith really wasn't "all that." He didn't contribute anything significant other than a few phrases, that because they're in English, have made him popular here. The French economists Say and Bastiat were even better econ. popularists.
But Speedmaster was right in that the list is half-begun without von Mises, Hayek, Rothbard et al.
After all, the other economists are charlatans. The Austrian School is correct.

By: muerzin

muerzin — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 12:33:32 +0000

and where is E.F. Schumaker? if there's one thing that's going to save our rinds it's de-centralising surely??

By: Craig

Craig — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 01:45:38 +0000

What, no Pareto (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilfredo_Pareto)?

By: donna

donna — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 21:23:56 +0000

New book on Schumpeter discussed here:

http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2007/04/david_warsh_i n_.html#comment-65292104

By: sam

sam — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 21:13:06 +0000

it's cool alex, i'd do the same thing!

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 18:12:16 +0000

Sam, the ads help defray the cost of bandwidth (Neato gobbles 'em up like candy).

By: Ali

Ali — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 16:57:11 +0000

Oh man. I got flashbacks from Economics class...I hated it all.

By: sam

sam — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 15:35:29 +0000

what's with all the advertisements between posts? LAAAAME!

By: Becki

Becki — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 14:49:12 +0000

Rather than a Friedman - Pinochet link, associating him with the dictator's crack down on Allende and the communists, maybe you should instead look at Chile's booming economy, after it adopted free markets. Free markets eventually led to freedom in all other aspects of like in Chile, including full democracy.

Friedman was a genius, and one of the intellectual giants of the 20th century. His "Free To Choose" series streams for free at The Idea Channel:
http://www.ideachannel.tv/
and you can find it on bit torrents at higher quality very easily.

This PBS interview is a good place to start learning about him:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/int_miltonfr iedman.html

This excerpt illustrates the real Friedman - Pinochet link:

INTERVIEWER: So you envisaged, therefore, that the free markets ultimately would undermine Pinochet?

MILTON FRIEDMAN: Oh, absolutely. The emphasis of that talk was that free markets would undermine political centralization and political control. And incidentally, I should say that I was not in Chile as a guest of the government. I was in Chile as the guest of a private organization.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/int_miltonfr iedman.html#10

By: Blake Riley

Blake Riley — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 14:21:05 +0000

While I like Speedmaster's suggestions, I think Richard Cantillon most deserves a place on the list. He arguably founded economics 40 years before Adam Smith with his Essai sur la Nature du Commerce(Smith even quotes his treatise in the Wealth of Nations). Cantillon made millions working as an advisor for the French government and speculating on the Mississippi Company. He is also the only well-known economist to be murdered. His disgruntled cook organized 5 other servants to kill and rob him, and then lit his London mansion on fire.

By: Terry Ortiz

Terry Ortiz — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 13:57:05 +0000

I second the Friedrich Hayek.

By: Speedmaster

Speedmaster — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 12:34:33 +0000

I'd add Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell, Von Mises, and Hayek to that list.

http://amateureconblog.blogspot.com/

By: Currywurst

Currywurst — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 09:43:45 +0000

You should have mentioned the rather infamous Friedman â€“ Pinochet-link...

By: XuYu

XuYu — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 05:33:54 +0000

Adam Smith put his invisible hand down my pants!