Who is your favorite Economist...past or present?

Frederic Bastiat, Ludwig von Mises, Henry Hazlitt, Friedrich Hayak, Walter williams, Thomas Sowell... hard to say. There are a niumber of good ones like the late Julian Simon with his famous bet that Paul Ehrlich welshed and Adam Smith.

So many good ones and they're stuck on Keynes? Sad!

Friedman and Sowell

I love the Friedman video on Greed, I have it on my profile!

Where ever did you come up with that? It shows how they have no problem declaring a win to the real loser! I'm saving that and putting it on my profile, I love it! Oh, does that make me a real geek or what? LOL!

There's two of them....on youtube and they are awesome...here's the other one

Thanks, Bob...I went and found it and now have both on my profile page. I even posted this one on FB. I love the part where he says you can have full employment and nothing to eat! LOL!

Thomas Sowell

He's my favorite living economist and historian. I've read almost all of his books, he is so exceptional at explaining very complex issues. He truly can make you think about things in an entirely different way. I love him!

Keyes because he stimulates the economy

Even Keynes is rolling over in his grave over the blasphemy to the economy that is being perpetrated in his name. Actually, some of his main theories have been debunked but since he's popular in the Marxist universities, rational free market economics are not taught like they should be.

I think even ADAms would roll over in his grave if he saw how rhe free market is running. I think he would be screaming for tarrifs.

Look up Smoot-Hawley and see how that tariff worked out.

I will. All I know is in many ways it is like history repeting itself like during the depression

Wow, big question. Smith to be sure, Hayek, Friedman, and Sowell. but then that is like listing the students of Beethoven to decide what music you like today. Maybe a better question would be based on the inherent doctrines of planed v free, or supply v demand, or the relationship between the form of overall governance and the choice of economic style to compliment it.

You don't have a favorite composer or a favorite singer? I don't have any favorite celebrities, I hate them all!

The point is a progression from master to student that improves and adds his own to the teachings of the master. As Beethoven's student taught Liszt who influenced Wagner, who both taught Saint-Saens, who influenced the entire generation that followed. So to Smith is the master and the rest of the list are those who followed logically in his footsteps.

Short list would be Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Chopin, and selected works of Mozart, Gounod and a dozen others. Also like Emerson Lake and Palmer doing Bach. but then I will listen to almost anything, from Techno to Chant.

I've always been partial to Chopin, maybe because I had to memorize so many of his works when I was a kid taking piano lessons.

F. A. Hayek.

I prefer Dr Walter Williams to Dr Thomas Sowell as the economist of today. I enjoy them both, but Williams tends to focus more on economics while Sowell branches out into many other areas. I also like fellow Louisiana favorite son, Donald Boudreaux, but he isn't as prolific in the popular press.

Throughout history, it would be hard to beat Ludwig Von Mises. Friedrich Hayek would be close. So would Frederic Bastiat. Adam Smith deserves a nod, but wouldn't probably be in the top 5. There are/were quite a few notable economists who fit better in the "were" category. Henry Hazlitt has got to be in the top 5 somewhere. Milton Friedman had his moments. I always like Julian Simon, if only for his bet against that knucklehead Paul Ehrlich. The Foundation for Economic Education (fee.org) was a great repository for the writings of many great Austrian and libertarian writers, especially economists. I enjoyed reading their monthly periodical "The Freeman" even when I was still in Jr High and High School. My father was a subscriber and I read my his copy, often before he did. That was back when founder Leonard read still ran FEE and wrote in The Freeman.

Walter E Williams, Thomas Sowel

Myself. Because a real Economist actually changes the economy for the better instead of analyzing, predicting, and competing with other Economists.

http://www.sodahead.com/unite...

Wow, what else can I say.

God Bless you Gracie

Hayek or Friedman. Art Laffer. Adam Smith.

I agree with you on past Economists, Hayek, but also Milton Friedman. As for today's or living Economists. That's hard. There are so many, but let's see. Thomas Sowell and Dr. Walter E. Williams. I also like Art Laffer, but he has missed seeing a few of the latest happenings. Scott Sumner (professor of economics at Bentley State University who describes himself as a “Chicago-trained libertarian,”) said this not too long ago and I have to agree, "There’s an opportunity to … make our tax code a lot more efficient … in a way that maybe collects some more revenue but also makes it less intrusive … by having lower rates, a simpler system, fewer loopholes,” Think mabe he might be someone to watch?

Thomas Malthus, bar none. He made it so somple for people to see. Anyone who can read and can look at the last 10,000 years of history can see that if we do x, then y is BOUND to happen, and it ain't gonna be pretty, so to speak...

My man Malthus!

Was he right about population?

Milton Friedman, not that a number of others are right with him, I just like Friedman :-)

I agree Hayek is the best of the Austrian Economist

Peter Schiff:

He was totally right, it really must be embarrassing for the rest of them, especially with the faith in the financials! If it wasn't so sad it would be funny. No one ever wants to listen to the negative guy, especially in America! I took my money out of the market but I was listening to what Glenn Beck was saying about the crash of the economy. I didn't hear Schiff.

ooo. good choice!

Milton Friedman, and by extension, Adam Smith.

hoot, man, hoot!

Not many economists get a hoot, man, hoot!

I'm most interested in development economics, so I most appreciate the work of people like Paul Romer, Joseph Stiglitz and Daron Acemoglu. Acemoglu's co-authored book, "Why Nations Fail" is among one of the best I've read. I'd like to note, how regretful it is how too many people try to polarize economics by putting people like Freidman, Keynes, Hayek et cetera on pedestals. I could easily find things I agree with from those three that I disagree. Modern economics has in many ways synthesized these views and there is much more agreement in the field than politicians want to admit.

Socialist economics or is that too simplistic?

Adam Smith and Milton Friedman. I like reading Thomas Sowell, too!