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Thorstein Bunde Veblen, b. Valders, Wis., July 30, 1857, d. Aug. 3, 1929, is best known for his book The Theory of The Leisure Class (1899), a classic of social theory that introduced the concept of "conspicuous consumption." Veblen received a Ph.D. from Yale in 1884 and taught at the University of Chicago, Stanford University, the University of Wisconsin, and the New School for Social Research.

Veblen argued that a fundamental conflict exists between the making of goods and the making of money. In The Theory of Business Enterprise (1904), he argued that the entrepreneur is a reactionary predator whose perspective is diametrically opposed to that of the engineer or industrialist. Veblen's businessperson makes profits not by providing an outlet for the forces of industrialization and social evolution but by distorting them: by engaging in monetary manipulations, by restricting output to keep prices artificially high, and by interfering with the engineers who actually produce goods and services. The founder of the so-called institutionalist school, Veblen believed that economics must not be studied as a closed system but rather as an aspect of a culture whose customs and habits constitute institutions that are rapidly changing.