2.  Adam Smith (1723-1790)   9.3 million results on Google 

From Scotland, worked primarily in Scotland

Said: “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.” (from The Wealth of Nations)

Smith was best known for writing The Wealth of Nations, a book that, among other things, explained how individuals’ selfish actions can lead to socially beneficial outcomes.

3.  Paul Krugman (1953-present)   5.9 million results on Google

From the United States, works in the United States

Said: “Every successful example of economic development this past century—every case of a poor nation that worked its way up . . . has taken place via globalization.”

Krugman is a leader of the New Keynesian School of economic thought, which advocates government intervention in the economy to correct perceived market failures.

4.  Ben Bernanke (1953-present)   5.2 million results on Google 

From the United States, works in the United States

Said: "If you want to understand geology, study earthquakes. If you want to understand economics, study the biggest calamity to hit the U.S. and world economies."

Bernanke is the current chairman of the Federal Reserve and previously served on George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisors and as a professor of economics at Princeton.

5.  Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973)   4.5 million results on Google

From Austria, worked primarily in the United States

Said: “Once [one realizes] that the division of labor is the essence of society…the contradiction between individual principle and social principle disappears.” (from Socialism)

Mises was one of the most prominent members of the Austrian School of economic thought, which opposes virtually all forms of government intervention in the economy.

6.  Milton Friedman (1912-2006)   3.5 million results on Google 

From the United States, worked in the United States

Said: “Inflation is everywhere and always a monetary phenomenon.” (from an academic paper explaining the role of central banks, the suppliers of money, in creating inflation)

Friedman was the best-known free market economist of the 20^th century, largely because of the popularity of Free to Choose, a book and television series he created with his wife.

7.  Thomas Sowell (1930-present)   2.5 million results on Google 

From the United States, works in the United States

Said: “What the welfare system [is] doing is paying people to fail. In so far as they fail, they receive the money; in so far as they succeed… the money is taken away.”

Sowell is known for his research and views on social decision making and on government policies that, he argues, hold back the progress of racial and ethnic minorities.

8.  John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)   2.4 million results on Google 

From England, worked primarily in England 

Said: “It is better to be a human dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.” (from Utilitarianism, on the different sources of pleasure)

Mill was a moral and political philosopher who contributed to economic understanding in various ways, but he is best known for advocating utilitarian ethics and human freedom.

9.  Joseph Stiglitz (1943-present)   2.4 million results on Google

From the United States, works in the United States

Said: “The reason the invisible hand often seems invisible is that it is not there.”

Stiglitz is known for criticizing the free market and researching information asymmetry, the existence of which has led him to call for government intervention in certain industries.

10.  John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946)   2.2 million results on Google

From England, worked in England

Said: “The long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead.” (from A Tract on Monetary Reform, on the importance of policies’ short-term effects)

Keynes was behind a number of influential and controversial economic ideas and famously argued that central banks should attempt to stabilize prices by manipulating interest rates.