As you might know, Tyler Cowen wrote a book about the Greatest of All Time in economics. It is a free to read book, and can be read “through” ChatGPT. Here’s the book, if you haven’t read it yet.
The book was written mostly during the pandemic, and the idea for writing the book in the way that it has been written came via Bill Simmons. Who is Bill Simmons is an entirely fair question to ask if you are not a fan of basketball:
In July 2008, Simmons announced that he would be taking 10 weeks off from writing columns for ESPN.com’s Page 2 to concentrate on finishing his second book, The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to the Sports Guy, which was released on October 27, 2009. The book tries to find out who really are the best players and teams of all time and the answers to some of the greatest “What ifs?” in NBA history. It debuted at the top of The New York Times Best Seller list for non-fiction books.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Simmons
Long story short, Tyler Cowen wrote a book explaining who his favorite economist was by writing it the way a basketball fan would have written the definitive book about who his favorite basketball player was.
Such a good idea, no?
But wait, it gets better.
Cardiff Garcia interviewed Tyler recently, about just this book. But with a twist: the second half of the interview is about asking who the basketball equivalent of a truly great economist would be.
So, for example:
So if Adam Smith could be compared to one great basketball player, who would it be for you?
https://www.bazaaraudio.com/the-new-bazaar/if-econs-could-hoop
Tyler’s answer, and Cardiff Garcia agrees, is Bill Russell. Now, I know next to nothing about basketball, so I have no clue how to evaluate this answer. He and his team won 11 out of the 13 (!) seasons that he played in the NBA, though, so I’m happy to go along with their pick.
But I have the obvious question, as a fan of cricket: who is the cricketing equivalent of Adam Smith?
To my mind, there are only two possible answers: WG Grace, and The Don. But based on what little I know of both of them, and this little nugget from Tyler and Cardiff’s conversation, I’d probably go with Sir Donald Bradman:
CARDIFF: With all that as a windup, I’m gonna first start by asking you about the three GOATS that you listed in your book. So these again would be Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, and Milton Friedman, and ask if there are any analogs from the history of basketball. So if Adam Smith could be compared to one great basketball player, who would it be for you?
TYLER: There are analogs for all three. Adam Smith, to me, is the Bill Russell of economics. Or Bill Russell is the Adam Smith of basketball. The first player to get it right, do very well, play the game seriously, bring to it quality, intelligence, work ethic, win a lot of championships, build a great team.
https://www.bazaaraudio.com/the-new-bazaar/if-econs-could-hoop
Perhaps you agree, perhaps you don’t. Perhaps you have another contender, which is awesome, for we can then have a passionate argument about economics and cricket, and what could possibly be better?
(But, uh, you’d be wrong. The only correct answer is Don Bradman.)
But ah, Cardiff’s next question is an even bigger lightning rod for controversy. Which basketball player, Tyler is asked, is the right analog for John Stuart Mill. The reason this matters is because John Stuart Mill is Tyler’s pick for Econ Goat. So who, Tyler is being asked, is the basketball Goat?
Tyler’s pick is LeBron James.
Who, then, is the cricketing equivalent?
I’m forty-two years old, and an Indian. Do you even need to ask?
Read the rest of their conversation to learn more about Goat economists, Goat basketball players, and in order to frame (hopefully) endless debates about Goat cricket players.
But also read the rest of the conversation for some truly delightful nuggets about economics. Of which, this is by far my favorite:
TYLER: The one time I spent time with Robert Solow was the retirement event for Thomas Schelling at Harvard. Solow was so rude to Tom. On the date of his retirement. Tom didn’t want to retire, there was mandatory retirement at 70. They got everyone together to pay tribute to Tom. Everyone else was warm and glowing.
Bob Solow totally cut the legs out from underneath Tom, insulted him, told him he didn’t know enough math, didn’t use enough technique.
CARDIFF: On the day of his retirement?
TYLER: On the day of his retirement, in front of a lot of other people! I couldn’t believe it.
CARDIFF: That’s a little strange. I’ve never heard that story, by the way.
TYLER: Not many people were there. It was organized by Dick Zeckhauser. And Tom even afterwards kind of shrugged and looked at me like, well, I guess this is how it’s going to be, and he took it in good enough humor. But I was appalled.
https://www.bazaaraudio.com/the-new-bazaar/if-econs-could-hoop
Huh.
And finally, wouldn’t it be fun if Indian economists replicated the entire exercise for cricket, and made a podcast or YouTube video out of it?
EconForEverybody 