Quotable Economists Trivia Quiz

Answer: John Maynard Keynes

John Maynard Keynes, author of "The Challenge to Prosperity" and other books on economics, challenged the intellectual orthodoxy of his day by arguing that the gold standard kept policy makers from growing the economy. He promoted an elastic currency that would allow governments to spend in times of downturns and supported using deficit spending as a response to recessions. Though unorthodox for his time, his ideas have become so established that Milton Friedman once wryly stated, "We're all Keynesians now."

Answer: Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell dropped out of high school. After joining the Marines, however, he managed to graduate magna cum laude from Harvard, earn a master's from Columbia, and then obtain a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago. An economist, sociologist, and political philosopher, he has written over two dozen books.

His "Basic Economics" is an introductory volume that makes economics accessible to the layman. The quote in this question comes from "Barbarians Inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays." Thomas Sowell's works often explore the ways in which politicians disregard economic realities in order to pursue their own visions.

He wrote, "The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it.

The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics."

Answer: Adam Smith

Adam Smith, sometimes called "the father of economics," was the author of "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations," which was published in 1776. He coined the term "the invisible hand" to describe the way that individuals pursuing their own interests through markets operates to benefit society:

"By directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest, he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good. It is an affectation, indeed, not very common among merchants, and very few words need be employed in dissuading them from it."

Answer: Friedrich Hayek

The Nobel-prizing-winning economist Friedrich August von Hayek was born in Austria but emigrated to the U.K.. Hayek made powerful arguments in defense of free markets and price as a mechanism of communication of information. An intellectual opponent of Keynes, he opposed steering markets (trying to "design" the economy) and emphasized that mal-investment injures the economy and savings precedes investment.

Answer: Claude-Frédéric Bastiat

The 19th-century French economist Claude-Frédéric Bastiat is known for his parable of the broken window, in which he counteracts the belief that destruction is good for the economy because it creates more work. The parable shows how opportunity costs and unintended consequences affect the economy in ways that are often unseen.

He was an advocate of free markets who noted, "Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state. They forget that the state lives at the expense of everyone."

Answer: Milton Friedman

The 20th-century American economist Milton Friedman, author of "Capitalism and Freedom," was a leading figure in the Chicago School of Economics. He chiseled away at the orthodoxy of Keynesian economics, discussed the negative effects of government licensing, proposed a negative income tax and education vouchers, and rejected the Keynesian view that households adjust their consumption based on their actual income rather than their projected income.

Answer: Ludwig von Mises

Ludwig von Mises wrote "Human Action: A Treatise on Economics," in which he emphasized the importance of private property ownership: "If history could teach us anything, it would be that private property is inextricably linked with civilization." An Austrian Jew, he fled the growing dangers of Nazism and settled in New York City, where he became a professor of economics at New York University.

In contrast to socialist and Marxist theories, he focused on individual human choices as the foundation of economics, and he greatly influenced economists such as Hayek and Rothbard.

Answer: Murray N. Rothbard

The full quote is: "Taxation is theft, purely and simply even though it is theft on a grand and colossal scale which no acknowledged criminals could hope to match. It is a compulsory seizure of the property of the State's inhabitants, or subjects."

Rothbard argued that government was unnecessary and that the free market could better provide public goods, including court systems, roads, healthcare, and defense forces. He helped to found the Mises Institute, an economic think tank.

Answer: Karl Marx

The 19th-century German philosopher and economist Karl Heinrich Marx lived in exile in England, where he worked with Friedrich Engels to publish his writings, including "The Communist Manifesto" and "Das Kapital." His theories, today called Marxism, focus on the development of human societies through class conflict, such as between the bourgeoisie ruling class that controls the means of production and the proletariat (working class) that exchanges labor for wages.

Answer: Paul Krugman

Paul Krugman is a public intellectual and avid defender of contemporary Keynesian economics who endorses employing government deficit spending to spur slumping economies. He is the author of "The Return of Depression Economics and The Crisis of 2008" and "Arguing with Zombies," among other books.