Boston Globe - Paul A. Samuelson, a giant of 20th-century economics and the first American recipient of the Nobel Economics Prize, who helped popularize the Keynesian revolution and introduce generations of undergraduates to economics through his famous textbook, died today at his home in Belmont. He was 94.

Dr. Samuelson's special status within the profession sprang from more than just technical prowess. Other renowned economists, such as John Maynard Keynes (with deficit spending) or Milton Friedman (with limiting the role of government), made their greatest impact on public policy. Dr. Samuelson's primary emphasis was on economics itself.

Dr. Samuelson's talents were so obvious many were surprised when Harvard failed to offer him a faculty position. Its failure to do so has often been ascribed to anti-Semitism. In "The Academic Scribblers," a study of 20th-century American economists, William Breit and Roger L. Ransom also cite Dr. Samuelson’s youth and brashness. MIT having no such reservations, Dr. Samuelson switched Cambridge addresses.

He was among a circle of JFK advisers, that also included John Kenneth Galbraith, who led Kennedy to recommend the historic income tax cut that Congress eventually passed in early 1964, three months after the president was assassinated. "A temporary reduction in tax rates on individual incomes can be a powerful weapon against recession," Samuelson had written in a report to Kennedy in early 1961. The cut was widely credited with helping foster the 1960s economic boom.

Dr. Samuelson, who said he subscribed to "eclectic liberalism" in his politics, played a role in the next administration as well -- albeit of a highly different sort. He was on the Nixon White House enemies list.

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from his blog here, with many comments from NYT readers.

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