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.