Marx's intellectual legacy is an appraisal of Carl Marx in the most unlikely of places. It is quite well argued.

I remember meeting Kaushik Basu once in his booklined study at his home in New Delhi. Basu then was an economist in Delhi School of Economics and was one of the most vocal supporters of Manmohan Singh's liberalization in nineties India. Two things you noticed immediately when you entered his room; stacks of Bertrand Russels in his shelves, probably all the books that Russel ever wrote and a water color of Carl Marx on his study table. I was a little intimidated, but could not stop myself from asking him how come such a passionate supporter of economic liberalization had a drawing of Marx on his table. He said. "There are actually two reasons. Firstly, it is the only drawing that I have made which looks even remotely like the person it is supposed to represent. Secondly, Marx was one of the most brilliant economists in the world. If he had access to the kind of empirical data that we have access to these days, I don't think he would have proposed communism." I suppose it also had the effect of disarming a lot of people!