Quote:
Originally Posted by
aybojs 
I don't see how a two-hit wonder of a pop journalist who only has an undergrad degree fits in a list of great contemporary academics. Seriously, Tipping Point was just a canned and dumbed down restatement of every well-known experiment discussed on a Psych 101 synopsis, not the product of any significant or intensive research or a conduit for any really enlightening new theories.
+1,00000000000000000000000000
Gladwell knows how to sell books but I wouldn't call him a serious academic or thinker.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
rdawson808 
I'll second both
Posner
Coase
and add
Stephen Breyer
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
George Akerlof
Robert Reich
Hal Varian
Oliver Williamson
Paul Romer
Alain de Botton (not strictly an "academic" but knowledgable and interesting, I think)
b
Nice list of economists rdawson. Is Ronald Coase still around? Hard to believe since his most influential work was done in the 1930s.
I would also add Paul Samuelson, Jim Heckman and my favorite nobel-prize winning economist (who is actually a psychologist

), Daniel Kahneman.
I will also mention Alfred Chandler because he was a brilliant business historian and management thinker and only died a couple of months ago.