I sometimes wonder what my younger self would think of what he's become. I like to think that I've avoided a disappointed reaction, but it's hard to say because I've always been a bit "judgey". At the very least, there are several things I couldn't have predicted. One is that I actually have a list of favorite economists. 20-year-old me couldn't have imagined that in a million years. In no particular order, <dl dt_class="field"> Dean Baker He's the founder of CEPR, the voice of sanity and national treasure of American economics. I <a href="{app]view_article.php?id=3859">cite</a> <a href="{app]view_article.php?id=3643">him</a> <a href="{app]view_article.php?id=3360">often</a> and can recommend his book: <a href="{app]view_article.php?id=3393"><i>Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer</i> by <i>Dean Baker</i> (2016) (read in 2017)</a>. Mark Blyth He's a professor at Brown University, an excellent economist and a former stand-up comedian. He also has a German wife, speaks German and has a good grasp of European affairs. I've written about him in <a href="{app}view_article.php?id=3336">Discussion between Mark Blyth and Wendy Schiller on Nov. 9, 2016</a>, <a href="{app}view_article.php?id=3351">Mark Blyth on Global Trumpism</a>, <a href="{app}view_article.php?id=3390">Mark Blyth on the Jimmy Dore show</a>, and, of course, a review of his groundbreaking shredding of austerity in <a href="{app}view_article.php?id=3136">Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea by Mark Blyth (read in 2015)</a>. Richard Wolff He's a Marxist/Socialist economist and one of the driving forces behind the Democracy at Work organization. I wrote about him in <a href="{app}view_article.php?id=3872">Bernie Blindness and the U.S. hatred of Socialism</a> under the sub-head "Richard Wolff is a National Treasure". Yanis Varoufakis He's the former finance minister of Greece and current founder of DIEM25, there's very little I don't like about this guy. I've written about him several times: <a href="{app}view_article.php?id=3652">A brace of videos from Oxford (Varoufakis, Piketty & Žižek)</a>, <a href="{app}view_article.php?id= 3533"><i>Adults in the Room: My Battle with the European and American Deep Establishment</i> by <i>Yanis Varoufakis</i> (2017) (read in 2018)</a> (a book that is long, but highly recommended). Thomas Piketty I have a few draft article in the making on his latest work <i>Capital and Ideology</i>, which seems to encompass and eclipse his previous groundbreaking work in <i>Capital in the 21st Century</i>. I wrote about him in <a href="{app}view_article.php?id=3652">A brace of videos from Oxford (Varoufakis, Piketty & Žižek)</a>. </dl> I mean, I like J.K. Galbraith, Jeffrey Sachs, James Tobin, and Joseph Stiglitz<fn>, too---but the ones above are my top five. <hr> <ft>Yes, I noticed. All men. The only woman I can think of, off the top of my head, is Ann Pettifor.</ft>