7 Great Books By Economists

There's a major panel discussion going on today in Washington, D.C. called "The Next Stage," in which economists are coming together to discuss the problems facing America, from unemployment rates to the mortgage crisis to the Obama administration's economic policy as a whole.

Over here at HuffPost Books, the panel inspired us to create a list of some of the best and most important books by economists. We hope this will shed light on the history of our country's economic policies and the point that we've come to now.

Vote on the books you think are the most important, and leave your own suggestions in the comments section below.

Capitalism and Freedom, Milton Friedman

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Filed by: Jessie Kunhardt

Comments

[Pearlswan]

10:00 PM on 11/17/2009

Economics In One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt

[wilray]

05:57 AM on 11/16/2009

Thorstein Veblen -"Theory of the Leisure Class"

[BabblingBrooks]

09:38 AM on 11/16/2009

Thorstein Veblen creates much of his book out of his imagination.

His discussion of walking sticks is particularly bizarre. He claimed that those who owned farms, plantations, etc., carried walking sticks in the fields in order to engage their hands, to pretend that they were doing something useful with their hands.

Anyone who has reached middle age, especially anyone in the rough times of earlier years, and anyone who actually walked in broken fields, over rough terrain, would know that using a walking stick is very sensible. It relieves much strain on the knee joints and it aids balance, thus preventing falls. Many hikers use a hiking stick. Indeed, with modern lightweight materials, many hikers use TWO walking sticks.

Veblen let his prejudices run far ahead of actual facts.

[wilray]

03:42 PM on 11/16/2009

I read Veblen. I read Thorstein's book many decades ago, so I don't remember much of the particulars I do know that he influenced many other economists, and I do agree that how we spend leisure is the ultimate display of wealth (20 million for a rocket ride). Thorstein also coined the phrase "conspicuous consumption." That phrase alone does indeed reflect the psychology of many of our buying habits. A more modern phrase would be "keeping up with the Joneses." Look around and you will see it is how we find ourselves in such a financial mess today. People spend well beyond their incomes because that's what we advertise to them, and with the availability of credit we tell them to buy the flashier car, get the bigger home, take a nice vacation. BTW, your explanation of why someone get's a walking stick makes sense. Of course, it doesn't explain why it needs to be diamond encrusted, or why someone would need one at 30. Neither does it explain the pimp cane. The Pimp lifestyle is the ultimate display of Veblen's theory. Certainly, I don't believe Veblen's case for why men choose delicate, skinny women. I do believe the phrase "Putting on the Ritz" is also inline with Veblen's theory.

[BabblingBrooks]

09:40 AM on 11/16/2009

In other words, his "Theory of the Leisure Class" was, much like Marx's maunderings, truly theory, not fact.

[WalterJesseSmith]

03:44 PM on 11/30/2009

It was extraordinarily excellent theory, unlike that lightweight babbler Milton Friedman, much of whose work has already proven more problem than solution. Almost none of Veblen's theory has been discounted by economic theorists. But I am aware that those who don't have the discipline to read theory would have little patience for Veblen, or Marx, or Adam Smith, or Aristotle. They might even find a contemporary of ours, an excellent political economist as well as quite clear writer, Jamie Galbraith, too difficult to read. As the old saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make 'em drink.

[Martin 27514]

05:43 AM on 11/16/2009

You can't put "GREAT" and "ECONOMISTS" in the same sentence in 2009 - sorry.

[pjrobar]

04:33 AM on 11/16/2009

Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy by Joseph A. Schumpeter and (as mentioned by several others) The Worldly Philosophers were required reading in my college's Economics Dept.

[Sean 6399]

07:20 PM on 11/15/2009

The list is incomplete without some representation from the Austrians.

[Alex Terr]

07:51 PM on 11/14/2009

Michael Albert- Parecon: Life After Capitalism

One of the few books to actually deal with an alternative capitalist system, providing a vision of participatory economics. While it takes a lot from socialist ideology, it rejects centrally planned socialism system.

[Chiligentilly]

05:53 PM on 11/14/2009

The Worldly Philosophers, Robert L. Heilbroner
How Markets Fail, John Cassidy
The Great Crash 1929, John Kenneth Galbraith
Honey in the Horn, H.L. Davis. A Pulitzer Prize winning novel with the best description of 19th century/ early 20th century American developmental economics.

And Keynes.

[laikhuram]

12:58 PM on 11/14/2009

STU-PID LIST.

Where are the real ones????

[VinceTeeter]

11:00 AM on 11/14/2009

Economics ?? People actually get PhD's in economic make believe. As a predictive science, economics rates slightly above weather forecasting and significantly below Voodoo.

[LiamMunny]

08:46 AM on 11/14/2009

They all belong in the epic fail section.

[BoFo]

08:40 PM on 11/13/2009

Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work

E.F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered

and, um, a big oversight:

Karl Marx, Capital

[MaximMaximus]

08:33 PM on 11/13/2009

I've got the impression that the authors of this article, who seems to be proposing this book list, has a friggin clue about economics. Nice going HuffPo!

[Guitanguran]

08:14 PM on 11/13/2009

Freidman, far and away.

[Caolas]

07:40 PM on 11/13/2009

It's impossible to take this list seriously with it's absence of Marx's 'Capital'.

[rogerP]

02:14 PM on 11/30/2009

The most important, the one that changed the way we see the world,the one that explained the system in very concrete therms is conveniently omitted (censored). He is A non person. Just like Stalin ... don't like them,erase their
memomory

[truthseeker7]

06:40 PM on 11/13/2009

It's sad that a HuffPo article about books on influential economists or economic thought would have nothing from the Austrian School of Economics - ala Ludwig Von Mises or Friedrick Hayek.

A sad commentary on the lack of breadth in their knowledge.