March 6, 2013 1:58PM 

# Letter to the WSJ: Armen Alchian’s Wise Economics 

By [Steve H. Hanke](https://www.cato.org/people/steve-h-hanke) 

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[My letter to the editor](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323478304578332280953981340.html) was published in today’s *Wall Street Journal*. In response to the [obituary of Prof. Alchian,](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323495104578314253161656148.html) the WSJ published on 20 February 2013, I wrote the following:

> David R. Henderson’s obituary of the great economist and pedagogue Armen Alchian ([“An Economist Who Made the Science Less Dismal](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323495104578314253161656148.html),” Feb. 20) brings back fond memories from the summer of 1966, when I was one of Prof. Alchian’s students.
> 
> 
> One of the many take-aways from Alchian’s 1966 lectures was his “95% Rule”—95% of what you read in professional journals that passes for economics is either wrong or irrelevant. Over the years I have verified this and regularly conveyed Alchian’s rule to my students.
> 
> 
> **Prof. Steve H. Hanke**
> 
> 
> *The Johns Hopkins University*
> 
> 
> *Baltimore*

Prof. Alchian met his maker on 19 February 2013. He was 98 years old.

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