Curated playlist
Presidents of the American Economic Association
- Alvin HansenEconomist Alvin Hansen doubted Keynes at first, then embraced him. By December 1938 he was a full convert.
- Robert Lucas Jr.Robert Lucas's divorce deal gave his ex-wife half of any Nobel Prize awarded before October 31, 1995.
- George AkerlofGeorge Akerlof showed why good used cars can vanish from a market.
- Milton FriedmanMilton Friedman argued the Federal Reserve let the money supply shrink by one-third between 1929 and 1933.
- Paul SamuelsonPaul Samuelson said he was born as an economist at age sixteen. It happened in a 1932 Chicago lecture on Malthus.
- James TobinJames Tobin proposed a tax on currency trading to throw sand in the wheels of speculation.
- Janet YellenJanet Yellen is the only person to have led the Fed, the White House economic advisers and the Treasury.
- Angus DeatonIn 2024, Nobel economist Angus Deaton said he had changed his mind on much of mainstream economics.
- Joseph SchumpeterJoseph Schumpeter did not coin "creative destruction", the phrase he made famous. He borrowed it from Werner Sombart.
- Amartya SenAmartya Sen carries a name that was chosen for him by a Nobel laureate. Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian to win a Nobel Prize, gave the newborn the name অমর্ত্য. The boy was born on the 3rd of November 1933 in Santiniketan, Bengal,…
- Franco ModiglianiEconomist Franco Modigliani won a student prize from Mussolini himself. Later he fled Italy and won a Nobel Prize.
- Gary BeckerEconomist Gary Becker argued that criminals are not irrational. He said they weigh the risks and rewards of a crime.
- Olivier BlanchardOlivier Blanchard became the IMF's chief economist two weeks before Lehman Brothers collapsed.
- Susan AtheyA summer job preparing computer sales bids set Susan Athey on the path to economics.
- Richard ThalerEconomist Richard Thaler played himself in the 2015 film The Big Short.
- Lawrence KleinLawrence Klein's model correctly predicted a postwar boom when many expected a depression.
- Claudia GoldinIn October 2023, the economist Claudia Goldin received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences "for having advanced our understanding of women's labor market outcomes". Only two women had won the award before her. None had ever won…
- Francis Amasa WalkerCivil War officer Francis Amasa Walker nearly drowned swimming a river to escape, and was recaptured.
- Robert J. ShillerRobert J. Shiller called the stock market a bubble in his 2000 book Irrational Exuberance. He shared a Nobel in 2013.
- William BaumolEconomist William Baumol explained why string quartets keep getting pricier.