The 10 Greatest Economists of all time in no order

[Oakvale]

No Hicks?

I would have assumed an Atlas poster might have included Coase or Arrow or someone but you've clearly taken a classic internet libertarian route in making this list.

Yeah, Hayek was not an actual economist. Political theorist/philosopher is a more accurate description.

Pretty sure Ricardo deserves a spot in the top 10.

Hayek is a respected figure in the economics profession. Von Mises, of those on this list, would be more of a problem. Along with Marx, he shares the dubious distinction of starting a religious cult. But, at least, Marxism has been influential.

Hayek was absolutely an "actual" economist. It's not (entirely!) his fault he's been attached to a bizarre ideological movement based around some of his more archaic ideas.

[Oakvale]

No Hicks?

I would have assumed an Atlas poster might have included Coase or Arrow or someone but you've clearly taken a classic internet libertarian route in making this list.

Yeah, Hayek was not an actual economist. Political theorist/philosopher is a more accurate description.

Pretty sure Ricardo deserves a spot in the top 10.

Hayek is a respected figure in the economics profession. Von Mises, of those on this list, would be more of a problem. Along with Marx, he shares the dubious distinction of starting a religious cult. But, at least, Marxism has been influential.

Hayek was absolutely an "actual" economist. It's not (entirely!) his fault he's been attached to a bizarre ideological movement based around some of his more archaic ideas.

Problem with Coase is that his theorem, while elegant in the hyper-simplified Flatland of Micro 101, has zero application in the real world due to transaction costs and power differentials mucking things up.  And yet, plenty of folks (especially those conveniently on the "right" side of those differentials) will use it as an excuse to avoid being held accountable for their actions.  So he's had a pretty pernicious effect all in all.

As for Hayek, I'm sure you've seen that quote of his where he basically advocates for a command-and-control approach to fighting pollution; I can't be too harsh on him knowing that (and, also, knowing that his real target was Stalinism rather than western-style social democracy).  Though using that line to defend Hayek is kinda like saying "Nixon signed the EPA into law!", so take as you will.

...

Pigou, of course, is the best.

God forbid I ever partake in such a list, my point was merely that those are some of the names I'd expect on your average GREATEST ECONOMISTS EVER list compiled by a poster on here. Maybe Piketty if it was one of our infant Marxists.

No Hicks?

I would have assumed an Atlas poster might have included Coase or Arrow or someone but you've clearly taken a classic internet libertarian route in making this list.

Yeah, Hayek was not an actual economist. Political theorist/philosopher is a more accurate description.

Pretty sure Ricardo deserves a spot in the top 10.

Hayek is a respected figure in the economics profession. Von Mises, of those on this list, would be more of a problem. Along with Marx, he shares the dubious distinction of starting a religious cult. But, at least, Marxism has been influential.

Hayek was absolutely an "actual" economist. It's not (entirely!) his fault he's been attached to a bizarre ideological movement based around some of his more archaic ideas.

Nobody forced him to write The Road to Serfdom, as far as I know.

No, but I'm not entirely sure what your point is here. An economist's writings for popular consumption shouldn't have an effect on their standing as economists - otherwise you're going to have to start dismissing Friedman, too, let alone people like Krugman. ...Serfdom is still an order of magnitude a more substantial popular work than most of his latter day acolytes have produced.

[Oakvale]

No, but I'm not entirely sure what your point is here. An economist's writings for popular consumption shouldn't have an effect on their standing as economists - otherwise you're going to have to start dismissing Friedman, too, let alone people like Krugman. ...Serfdom is still an order of magnitude a more substantial popular work than most of his latter day acolytes have produced.


1.Only among halfwits.

2.I believe Hayeks' contemporary Keynes books have sold significantly more than Hayek's 'books'.

Read my post again. I said it was a more substantial popular work, not a substantially more popular work. Regardless, your point about Keynes may well be true but is entirely irrelevant for both the above reason and the fact that Keynes was hardly one of Hayek's "latter day acolytes".

If you want to continue to insist that Hayek is some kind of marginal laughing stock that's fine, but it's not a particularly viable argument to make. Yes, a lot of his thinking hasn't exactly stood the test of time, but no-one's denying that Freud and Jung were legitimate psychologists.