15 Economists Who Will Change Your Thinking Forever

Posted on May 6th, 2009

While I am primarily a fan of the Austrian School, I also like Milton Friedman of the Chicago School, who often supports public policies consistent with Austrian economics. Therefore, I would at least add him to the list and make it 16.

There are others in the Classical School, like Adam Smith, that I could recommend reading, but that is such a mixed bag that I would rather tip-toe through a mine field.

A great resource for accessing and reading books by these authors and others can be found at Library of Economics and Liberty and my favorite places for “light” reading… the Ludwig von Mises Institute’s Literature Page and their Scribd Page.

1. Juan de Mariana: The Influence of the Spanish Scholastics
2. Richard Cantillon: The Origin of Economic Theory
3. A.R.J. Turgot: Brief, Lucid, and Brilliant
4. Jean-Baptiste Say: Neglected Champion of Laissez-Faire
5. Frederic Bastiat: Between the French and Marginalist Revolutions
6. Carl Menger: The Founding of the Austrian School
7. Philip Wicksteed: The British Austrian
8. Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk: Capital, Interest, and Time
9. Frank A. Fetter: A Forgotten Giant
10. Ludwig von Mises: The Dean of the Austrian School
11. Henry Hazlitt: The People’s Austrian
12. F.A. Hayek: Austrian Economist and Social Theorist
13. William H. Hutt: The “Classical” Austrian
14. Wilhelm Ropke: A Humane Economist
15. Murray N. Rothbard: Economics, Science, and Liberty

Bonus question: Does anyone know what the logo above is and what it means?

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5 Responses to “15 Economists Who Will Change Your Thinking Forever”

1. The Statesman Says:
   May 7th, 2009 at 9:55 pm

   I’ll take a wild guess and say it is ancient cuniform writing from Summer which translates to the word “liberty”.

   Tell the man what he won Carole…..

2. Mark Martin Says:
   May 7th, 2009 at 11:02 pm

   And the winner is “The Statesman”!

   Since I have received more than my fair share of marshmallow peeps, easter eggs, kisses, ect on facebook… you are more than welcome to gather the entire collection as your prize.

   Now get the hell off my lawn.

3. The Statesman Says:
   May 8th, 2009 at 6:03 am

   Hmmmm. I was hoping the prize would be a “how to” guide- how to get transcripts of committee meeting testimony for example….

4. Mark Martin Says:
   May 8th, 2009 at 11:09 am

   Statesman,

   Interestingly, I found out that there is no recorded transcript of the meetings “during the session.” Apparently the meetings during the interim ARE recorded and can be obtained. It seems to me that you may be on to a good idea for a government accountablity measure. All committee meetings should be recorded. Ideally they should be video recorded, but practically speaking audio recordings that are podcast would be great.

5. eLwood Says:
   May 15th, 2009 at 8:30 am

   I would like to be informed of exactly what has the profession of economics accomplished. They have failed to prevent the last 14 recessions we’ve encountered since the Great Depression. They can say we are in a recession when it is occurring but few seem able to predict or offer effective controls. They have no models for effectively smoothing the crazy cycles of peaks and crashes which accompany market systems. None predicted this current scenario. Just what is it that economists have accomplished?

   P.S. talk the lingo to me. I did a major in economics back when it was shedding the label of the “dismal science.”
   .