Armen Alchian passed away two days ago aged 98. Obituaries are available here and here. Below is a short video clip of Alchian talking about property rights.
Alchian was a brilliant economist who inspired several generations of economists, including Nobel prize winners. His papers are amongst some of the most cited in economics. Alchian should have won the Nobel prize in economics as his insights into property rights, inflation, money, economic organisation, the theory of the firm, and the biological approach to economics were all path-breaking. Alchian did the first event study analysis in corporate finance, but it remained a secret for four decades as it pertained to matters of national security - click here to read more.
If you read Alchian's papers, you will see that he had the knack of making the dismal science interesting, and his stress was on economic intuition rather than mathematical elegance. His book, Economic Forces at Work, is a must read for all serious thinkers about the economy.