Conversations with Great Economists

'Depressions are not the result of the operation of the market. They are the result of government controls, particularly in the sphere of monetary policy'.Professor F.A.Hayek,Nobel Prize winner in Economics. 'It is because I want to make economics more human that I want to make it more time conscious.' Professor Sir John Hicks, Nobel Prize winner in Economics. 'The most important challenge facing the world economy is the need to strengthen the adjustment mechanism between the growth of supply and demand for primary products'.Professor N.Kaldor, Cambridge University. 'Many people in the Soviet Union are aware that our economic system is not perfect...It is true that the Soviet economy's growth rate has decreased'.Professor L.V.Kantorovich, Nobel Prize Winner in Economics. 'The unemployment of developing economies arises because productive capacity and effective demand have never been at an appropriate level'.Professor J.Robinson, University of Cambridge. 'Schumpeter was wrong when he thought there is a timetable for the disappearance of capitalism'.Professor P.Samuelson, Nobel Prize winner in Economics. 'I am not as optimistic as Keynes in the sense the economic problem will disappear as a result of compound interest and technical progress.'Professor J.Tinbergen, Nobel Prize Winner in Economics. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 'A useful and important book'.Professor P.Samuelson, MIT, Nobel Prize winner in economics. 'A lively addition to the economics literature'.Professor A.Hirschman, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey. 'You will have read, studied or taught the work of these outstanding economists.Now you get a chance to meet them.Through the work of Diego Pizano we learn about how they thought and not just what they thought'. Professor R.Bates, Harvard University. 'Through penetrating and well structured questions, Colombian economist Diego Pizano manages to reveal the thought processes of five of the first Nobel Prize winners in Economics and two who could have obtained it, Joan Robinson and N.Kaldor.This book has to be read by all researchers interested in the history of economic thought and by all persons interested in economics as a discipline.' Professor D.Hueth, University of Maryland ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ DIEGO PIZANO was economic advisor to the President of Colombia between 1982 and 1986.He is the Chairman of the Board of the University of the Andes(Bogotá, Colombia) and the President of the Common Code for the Coffee Community Association(Bonn, Germany).