This Sats-Giveaway Hinges on the Word "Favorite"This Sats-Giveaway Hinges on the Word "Favorite"

So, BlokchainB gave me the honors this week to have the econ stackers guess economist (#1418810). I thought about the concept a while during the week since nobody comes to mind as an obvious yes.

So much also turns on what we read into "favorite." It can't be merely the "best" or the most "impactful," for the profession or the world. As I said to Shugard in a message today... "then I'd have to pick Keynes or Samuelson or someone...and I certainly don't approve of them!" (Kudos @cryotosensei).

Also "Economist." The word is fairly recent, so neither Cantillon nor Adam Smith would have thought of themselves as economists (AS was a moral philosopher, Cantillon a banker/Merchant). We can certainly call them economists, but ugh. Also, several people that came to mind and made it onto my list aren't economists strictly or at least not exclusively. So I took a broad interpretation here.

I went to my trusty bookshelf (#1414732) and thought to myself,

"Which economics-adjacent intellectual has taught me the most, and the most important things?""Which economics-adjacent intellectual has taught me the most, and the most important things?"

Ergo, the resulting list:

Then I thought, of these, who do I think are the most important, having had the greatest positive impact on me, thus becoming my favorites?

And so I highlighted Bryan Caplan and Deirdre McCloskey and Lawrence White (#1405221, #749912). McCloskey, and her Bourgeoisie series, elegant writing, and uncompromising stance is surely the professionally most important character, and the one I mostly try to emulate. Bryan Caplan is just a wonderfully economistic-minded thinking, his writing having always helped me understand concepts deeply.

...But since I'm a monetary guy, and have dedicated the last decade or so to thinking and writing about money, my choice had to be the greats in that arena. And White is amazing.

If I could only proscribe a single book on money, I'd pick Larry's The Theory of Monetary Institutions. It's old-ish (from the 1990s I believe) and dense as flying fuck, but worth every moment. His modern "version" of that, much lighter and much more relevant for the SN/Bitcoin crowd, is Better Money (out by Cambridge University Press, hashtag credentials) which compares fiat, gold, and bitcoin as monetary system. Fairly, accurately, and perfectly one might say -- tho of course I quibbled with some things in my review of his book. (it was published in BM Print, no clue which edition... maybe Autumn 2023 reprinted by Emile Phaneuf in a Center for Market Education collection of thoughts on Larry's book, and it obviously credited which issue of BM it was in, the "Withdrawal Issue")

Since nobody guessed the top 3 -- a single mention of any of them and I would have awarded the full prize there -- but there were plenty guesses shotgun style across the shortlist (and BlokchainB gave me the permission to split the bounty), I'm gonna kindly ask our host to split it 5 ways: (3,000 sats per economist)

• Mises: Yes, I love Mises and having written 56 articles for Mises.org (I counted, plus one more coming this week) and spent a summer there as a summer fellow, it's not like I disapprove of Mises' vast, dense and superimportant publications. They just haven't spoken to me/engaged me/changed my life and mind the way that some others on that list has.

= @Aardvark, @Shugard, @phat0m got this one, so split the bounty three ways (1,000 sats each), please!

• Mehrling: There are few other voices I'd go to for the plumbing of the financial system and how money works, not broadly or metaphysically or comprehensively like White, but in the here and now. Fiat behind the scenes. Like, where did Farrington learn some of the things in this great presentation? He probs read Mehrling. The book The New Lombard Street is fantastic, and Money and Empire from 2022 never got as much attention as it deserved... great story that mirrored the dollar system

= only @jakoyoh629 got this, 3,000 sats to him (her? them?) please.

• Josh Hendrickson great, prolific economist, his constant price-theory push made me realize a) the virtue of that approach, and b) that actually there is something to the Bitcoiner-conspiratorial "the-CPI-numbers-are-cooked" blabbering (though, they wouldn't know it...). He has two blog articles from a few years ago that, verbally and mathematically, proves that resources can never run out in a market society with private property. checkmate, environmentalists. Absolutely incredible. And he has a scholarly article about the Riksbank in the 17th century that I contributed comments to at a conference years ago, so duh
  Also, as the schtackers know, I read his Economic Forces every Thursday. And he might have the best scholarly article out there on bitcoin (#889571, #122934).

= @SimpleStacker nailed this one, so 3,000 sats that way pleeeeease.

• Fama honorable addition to the list (#863751), since I never even though of him but by the criteria I set out above, he certainly qualifies. Yes, I'm a big Fama dude (#971152), and I wrote my master's thesis at Oxford based on his methods and articles so I am well acquitanted with his work, like it a lot.
  = 3,000 sats to @karanjbhatia for being clever than me.
• Sowell just the greatest educator, the best "basic economics" thinking there is. Most people recommend Hazlitt (which is fine, I do too), but Sowell has probably made economists (or econ-thinkers) of more people than anybody else. Love the dude to bits.
  = so Mr. @BlokchainB gets to keep 3,000 for himself. HAVE FUN STAYING, checks bitcoin price UHM POOR!

THANK YOU ALL FOR ENTERTAINING ME

I had lots of fun, and introspectively learned a bunch too!

P.S., it's very nice to be in a position to give away others' sats.