The Godfather of Economics, Paul A. Samuelson has died. He was 94.

Not only did he write the economics textbook that I have worn to shreds and is the standard undergraduate text, he also didn't claim fiction on trade:

The Stolper-Samuelson Theorem

Mr. Samuelson provided a mathematical structure to study the impact of trade on different groups of consumers and workers. In a famous theorem, known as Stolper-Samuelson, he and a co-author showed that competition from imports of clothes and similar goods from underdeveloped countries, where producers rely on unskilled workers, could drive down the wages of low-paid workers in industrialized countries.

The theorem provided the intellectual scaffold for opponents of free trade. And late in his career, Mr. Samuelson set off an intellectual commotion by pointing out that the economy of a country like the United States could be hurt if productivity rose among the economies with which it traded.

His textbook is still with me, continually referenced these days since the start of this site.

Paul Krugman knew him well, (I just think his works are great) and wrote a blog piece showing his Samuelson text on his desk.

Krugman has written up a highlight of Samuelson's major works. One thing Krugman notes is the influence of the Great Depression on Samuelson.

I've noticed this generally, those who were around during the Great Depression clearly learned their economic lessons and the new crop of people who are oblivious, seem to be hell bent on enacting policies to repeat that experience.