Great Economists

Economics for the 21st Century

January 1, 2000

Economics on Trial IDEAS ON LIBERTY January 2000 Economics for the 21st Century by Mark Skousen “Nature has set no limit to the realization of our hopes.” — Marquis De Condorcet Recently I came across the extraordinary writings of the Marquis de Condorcet (1743-94), a mathematician with an amazing gift of prophecy in l`age des [...]

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GUESS WHO?

September 5, 1999

Forecasts & Strategies Personal Snapshots by Mark Skousen Which famous economist endorses the deficit-spending actions the federal government took during the Great Depression, prefers John Maynard Keynes over Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises, recommends printing more money as a short-term solution to Japan’s problems, and is strongly opposed to the gold standard? Paul Samuelson? [...]

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The Perseverance of Paul Samuelson’s “Economics”

September 5, 1999

Journal of Economic Perspectives By Mark Skousen Paul Samuelson’s Economics ranks with the most successful textbooks ever published in the field, including the works of Adam Smith, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill and Alfred Marshall. His 15 editions have sold over four million copies and have been translated into 41 languages (see Table 1). My [...]

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Who is the Greatest Economist of the 20th Century?

February 5, 1999

WHO IS THE GREATEST ECONOMIST OF THE 20TH CENTURY? “But half a century later, it is Keynes who has been toppled and (_________________), the fierce advocate of free markets, who is preeminent.” –Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw, The Commanding Heights, p. 15. Who deserves to be the greatest economist of the 20th century? This question [...]

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Milton Friedman, Ex-Keynesian

July 31, 1998

Economics on Trial THE FREEMAN July 1998 Milton Friedman, Ex-Keynesian by Mark Skousen “I had completely forgotten how thoroughly Keynesian I then was.” –MILTON FRIEDMAN 1 What?! The world’s most famous freemarket economist a former Keynesian? Yes, it’s true. One of the more remarkable revelations in Milton and Rose Friedman’s new autobiography, Two Lucky People, [...]

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Great Turnabouts in Economics, Part II

June 28, 1998

Economics on Trial THE FREEMAN June 1998 by Mark Skousen “I used to love hedgehogs but those were ‘my salad days when I was green in judgement’.  Now I prefer foxes–Smith over Ricardo, Mill over Senior, Marshall over Walras.” — MARK BLAUG 1 Last November, I reported on three economists who courageously reversed their published [...]

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Today’s Most Influential Economist?

May 5, 1998

Economics on Trial — THE FREEMAN May 1998 by Mark Skousen “But half a century later, it is Keynes who has been toppled and [______________], the fierce advocate of free markets, who is preeminent.” –DANIEL YERGIN and JOSEPH STANISLAW, The Commanding Heights 1 Fill in the blank.  Who is the mysterious economist named above?  Most [...]

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Keynesianism Defeated

October 9, 1997

WALL STREET JOURNAL — THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1997 By Mark Skousen In 1992, Harvard Prof. Greg Mankiw was paid an unprecedented advance of $1.1 million to produce the “next Salmuelson”–a successor to Paul Samuelson’s “Economics,” the most successful economics textbook ever written, with more than four million copies sold in 15 editions and 41 foreign [...]

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Best Textbooks for a Free-Market University

August 28, 1997

Economics on Trial THE FREEMAN By Mark Skousen “I don’t care who writes a nation’s laws … if I can write its economics textbooks.” –Paul A. Samuelson When I majored in economics in the late 1960s and early 1970s, there were precious few textbooks with a strong free market bent. My introductory course required Paul [...]

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