Intelligence & genetics
Latest update:
From the biography of Paul Samuelson (Founder of Modern Economics:
Paul A. Samuelson: Volume 1: Becoming Samuelson, 1915-1948):
'... he ascribed his intelligence to genetics: "I began as an
out-and-out believer in heredity. My brothers and I were smart
kids. My cousins all weighed in above the average." He was
congenitally smart and made no secret of it, at one point noting in
the early 1950s he was prescribed some medication that dulled his
mind, giving him for the first time insight into "how the other half
lives."'
From the comments to http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2017/01/founder-modern-economics-paul-samuelson.html:
'Paul Samuelson stated in the 1961 edition of his famous economics
textbook that USSR GNP was half that of the U.S. but was growing
faster... and would exceed the U.S. as early as 1984 or perhaps as
late as 1997. By the 1980 edition, Samuelson slipped those dates to
2002/2012, but stuck firmly to his "brilliant" economic analysis of
the Soviet economy. Samuelson kept predicting Soviet economic
dominance up until 1989.'
My copy of Economics doesn't have the chapter about the Soviets! Had I
found it there, I would have never bothered to read Samuelson.
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Authors: ag