Monday, December 14, 2009

Paul Samuelson the Great

Excerpt from Paul Samuelson's obituary in today's NY Times.

.."At Harvard, as at Chicago, he was not shy about critiquing his professors — “respecting neither age nor rank,” according to James Tobin, a Nobel laureate of Yale University. The young Mr. Samuelson’s chief complaint against economists was that they preoccupied themselves with finer economic principles while all around them people were being thrown into bread lines...."

Does it remind you of present day "Freshwater" economist types who still insist the free market would cure all problems, if problems even existed?

Samuelson on whose textbook at least 2 generations of economics students were raised was every bit as great as the obit described.

The obituary, the longest I can recall on any economist and one of the longest on anyone who had ever died is here.

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