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["Don Bowen" <don.bowen AT earthlink.net>]

> Who is your favorite economist?

Difficult question.  For many it is whoever has out the most recent book.

Allen Greenspan is a current favorite but he should be better known as the 
serial bubbler.  He aided and abetted the easing of credit rules, changing 
Social Security rules, and significant expansion of credit, all that feed to 
both the current credit crunch and the ever growing federal deficient.  His 
book was an attempt to paint his record a better color than it deserves.

Kevin Phillips is not an economist but write on the economy.  He is a 
conservative commentator and worked to get Nixon elected.  His most recent 
book "Bad Money" takes the country to task for its current financial woes. 
He blames it on easy credit pushed by Greenspan and a deliberate policy 
decision to make financials rather than manufacturing the wealth generator 
of the country.  He shows how the government has over the last 30 years have 
changed statistics to make them look better, what he calls "Pollyanna Creep"

Paul Krugman writes a column in the NY Times and is a PhD in economics.  His 
latest book "The Conscience of a Liberal" documents the huge shift in 
inequality that has taken place over the last 30 years.  He takes the 
current administration to task over its economic positions that have almost 
doubled the federal deficient over the last eight years and turned the 
defense department to the world's largest money sink.

Bill Mollison is a good read.  His concerns rotate around Peak Oil and 
Climate change.

Nouriel Roubini at http://www.rgemonitor.com/blog/roubini/ has been sounding 
the alarms for this current recession for a couple of years now and has been 
close to correct.

Brad Setser at http://www.blogs.cfr.org/setser was a member of the Fed's 
Board of Directors.  His views are more conservative than Bernake

As for books, everyone should read at least the following.
"The Worldly Philosophers" by Heibroner  is an overview of economic thought 
from Adam Smith to the Chicago School.
"Manias, Panics, and Crashes" by Kindleberger, Aliber, and Solow describes 
the path taken by all bubbles and crashes in the past.
"The Collapse of Complex Societies" by Tainter shows how collapse happens as 
we enter eras of declining returns.

Don Bowen      KI6DIU
http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html