Tyler Cowen is the Holbert L. Harris Professor of Economics at George Mason University and General Director of the Mercatus Center.  He received his PhD in economics from Harvard University in 1987.  His book The Great Stagnation: How America Ate the Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better  was a New York Times best-seller.  He was recently named in an Economist poll as one of the most influential economists of the last decade and last year Bloomberg BusinessWeek dubbed him "America's Hottest Economist."  Foreign Policy magazine named him as one of its "Top 100 Global Thinkers" of 2011.  He co-writes a blog at www.marginalrevolution.com and has recently inaugurated an on-line education project, MRUniversity.com.