For the last few years, Time magazine has compiled a list of the 100 people who “shape our world.” In the past, they’ve made some pretty questionable choices.
Economists have not figured very prominently on the previous lists; there has been roughly one economist in the top 100 per year, including people like Jeff Sachs and Larry Summers.
This year, things might change.
Although the official list has not been announced, anyone who wants can cast votes for the 203 finalists at Time.com. Remarkably, there are loads of economists among those in the running. As I write this, my friend Roland Fryer is ranked 38th. Ben Bernanke is at 133, Tim Geithner is at 152 (does he count as an economist?), Nouriel Roubini is at 161, Paul Krugman is at 168, Nate Silver is at 181 (not an economist, but close enough), and Richard Thaler is at 184.
One lesson from the Time.com voting is that you will get absurd results if you let internet votes decide anything. The top two vote getters right now are Moot and Rain — whoever or whatever they are.
And completely predictably, Ron Paul is the third-ranked vote getter.
and 
. You can also watch it on 
Oops, make that 4chan.org. How embarrassing.
moot is the founder of the website 4chan.
Wall Street Journal did a writeup on him last year: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121564928060441097.html
Time’s mistake was in thinking online demographics = normal demographics, and went the cheapest route to collecting votes. You must surely be impressed with the cohesiveness of 4chan, though. Like the Earth 4 billion years ago, life springs out of pure chaos: in this source, the source of many memes.
4chan – A possible swing vote?!
I think the rating scale is not transparent. For example Ben Bernanke’s average rank is 5. People are interpreting the top 100 scale to mean 1 is the highest and 100 is the lowest. I think the rankings are looking for influence. With 100 being the highest.
I think the voters are confused. Or I am…
That list is hilarious. T-Pain is #4. How cool is that?
Seth MacFarlane at #12 is perfect though. That guy is awesome.
^Yeah, 4chan.com is kind of like somethingawful.com, which has been the pusher of many internet phenomenon over the past number of years.
Momofuku Ando of Nissin Foods invented Top Ramen, the food that feeds half the world. Surely he deserves a place on the list.
Another year where I get passed over, Time are losing more and more credibility every day.