As a graduate student, I was introduced to the influential work of Ronald Coase, the Nobel-prize-winning economist. Coase was 101 at the end of December and, incredibly, is still active. Here is a video of him giving a speech, just before his 101st birthday, on China's amazing transformation over the past three decades (hat tip to my colleague Graham Brownlow).
According to Robert Shiller , speaking at Davos, Bitcoin is a perfect example of a bubble - story here . Shiller sees Bitcoin as a backwards step in the evolution of money. George Selgin , a free banker, takes an opposing view - click here . Although he doesn't believe that Bitcoin is money, he sees its development as a fascinating turn in the evolution of money. In particular, he lauds the fact that Bitcoin production is constrained and cannot be infinite. There is a short video below where Bitcoin explain how it works.