Tyler Cowen, America's Hottest Economist

That's the title of the Bloomberg's Buisnessweek's coverage of Tyler Cowen. And if you're not already reading his blog marginalrevolution, you should be.

From the article:

In his posts, Cowen often serves as a kind of agony aunt for intellectuals. On May 9 a reader asked about the best books on American history and culture written by foreigners. Cowen suggested Vladimir Nabokov and Ayn Rand and linked to a two-year-old list of fiction in the Wall Street Journal. In the same week he summarized a book on the origins of World War I, recommended the Chinese food in the basement of the Golden Mall in Queens, N.Y., and asked his readers to name the best pop album that never caught on. Cowen blogs like he reads: prolifically and about pretty much everything.

Further on:

He begins his analyses by assuming that if a market, or a person, behaves in a certain way, moral failure is the least likely explanation.

I consider Cowen to be my most influential living person that I've never met.