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]

Economics In One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt

[wilray]

Thorstein Veblen -"Theory of the Leisure Class"

[BabblingBrooks]

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]

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]

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

[Martin 27514]

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

[pjrobar]

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]

The list is incomplete without some representation from the Austrians.

[Alex Terr]

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]

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]

STU-PID LIST.

Where are the real ones????

[VinceTeeter]

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]

They all belong in the epic fail section.

[BoFo]

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]

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]

Freidman, far and away.

[Caolas]

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

[truthseeker7]

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.