A Times Best Business Book of 2018What can the ideas of historys greatest economists tell us about the most important issues of our timeThe best place to start to learn about the very greatest economists of all time Professor Tyler Cowen author of The Complacent Class and The Great StagnationSince the days of Adam Smith economists have grappled with a series of familiar problems but often their ideas are hard to digest before we even try to apply them to todays issues. Linda Yueh is renowned for her combination of erudition as an accomplished economist herself and accessibility as a leading writer and broadcaster in this field and in The Great Economists she explains the key thoughts of historys greatest economists how their lives and times affected their ideas how our lives have been influenced by their work and how they could help with the policy challenges that we face today. In the light of current economic problems and in particular economic growth Yueh explores the thoughts of economists from Adam Smith and David Ricardo through Joan Robinson and Milton Friedman to Douglass North and Robert Solow.