Nobel Laureate Paul Samuelson dead

Noted economist Paul Samuelson, who was the first American to be conferred the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, died after a brief illness on December 13. He was 94.

Samuelson was considered the "foremost academic economist of the 20th century," of whom the Swedish Royal Academies said, while awarding the honour, that he "has done more than any other contemporary economist to raise the level of scientific analysis in economic theory." 

Economic historian Randall E. Parker described him the "Father of Modern Economics."

Samuelson was author of the largest-selling economics textbook of all time -- Economics: An Introductory Analysis -- which first published in 1948. It was the first such book to explain the principles of Keynesian economics and how to think about economics, and is now in its 19th edition, having sold nearly four million copies in 40 languages.