Saturday, December 10, 2005

Economic Insights Archive & the richest economist ever

I've recently found out about this excellent resource for very short, highly readable (that means: even people who do not have anything with economics whatsoever might enjoy them) articles on economists and ideas linked to the free-market economy theories. These "economic insights" are published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

It is very interesting to read particularly the short economists' biographies because you find out thing about these influential economic thinkers (and do-ers...) that probably you won't find in any academic economic papers or books. Such an example is the inclusion of the citation from the economic historian Marc Blaug in the biography of David Ricardo (the most influential advocate of free trade and the coiner of the "comparative advantage" theory), a British economist who died suddenly of an ear infection in 1823, leaving an estate estimated at 126 million current dollars (!) : " Ricardo may or may not have been the greatest economist that ever lived, but he was certainly the richest".

Now, looking at the guy who practiced what he preached, will you believe in free trade or what?

No comments: