Two Beautiful Minds Die in Taxi Crash

Probably because they were not wearing seat belts. The first beautiful mind is John Nash, Jr. whose breakthroughs in game theory earned him a Nobel while his work with partial differential equations was rewarded by nothing less than the prestigious Abel Prize only a few days ago. The other beautiful mind is his wife Alicia who cared for him long enough until he emerged from a very long encounter with schizophrenia.

Fama, Hansen and Shiller Win Economics Nobel

The Nobel committee just announced this. They are getting it for their empirical work on asset prices.

Munro May Write Again, After Winning Nobel

That's what the charming 82-year-old Canadian told Adam Smith a couple of days ago. I know next to nothing about the "master of the contemporary short story" so I was curious to read what other writers had to say. And here's some of her pieces to discover.

What I do know however is that the Nobel committee is discriminating against the ultra-short story writer. Maybe I should stop writing too.

P.S. The economics Nobel Prize will be announced tomorrow. Too bad they don't give a reverse Nobel Prize, eh?

Sargent Has 40 Pages Ready For Nobel Speech

So I read in this nice NYT article today. Tom had this interesting observation:

"I think you've got to watch out for anybody in high-school who says he wants to become an economist." 

And this one when he got to Harvard where fellow Nobel-winner Chris Sims was already a rock star:

"He was so brilliant I was afraid to talk to him."

You also don't want to miss the prediction of Sims's math teacher. And you can read the 40-year-old Sims article that Sargent said got him going.

2011: The Year in Review

January: African leaders get wonderful opportunity to benefit from advice that could be lethal to their political careers. Water problems confirm Ramgoolam's economic model is junk. Planning maverick barely recognisable because Labour Party forgot who she was. State could have spent our money better. Bunwaree makes access to A-level education easier.

February: IMF analysis too bland to pick up social volcanoes that had been brewing right under surface of Arab world. Journalist remembers SSR's last public meeting. Minister magic needed at earth's driest place. Union boss wants price of basic foodstuffs controlled.

March: Nobel puts feet in mouth. Powerful earthquake sets off deadly Tsunami in Japan. BRIC and Germany say no to military action in Libya. Boolell says he's not there to serve fat cats. Proposed 10-20% hike in water charges has no basis. MPs want answers from Financial Secretary. Free guide to understanding the infamous stimulus package published.

Read the review for Q2, Q3, Q4.

Sims and Sargent Win Economics Nobel

Was quite happy to read that Chris Sims had won it yesterday given that he has always been kind of a rockstar in econometrics. That's especially true when you consider how he provided policy makers in the beginning of the 80s with a simplified tool, the vector autoregression, to carry about their business. That was a huge improvement over the large and messy macro-econometric models like those built by Fair.

Incidentally, I was dragged into an econometrics symposium at the end of the 80s in Montreal by one of my university buddies where many of the discipline's Gods were meeting: Zellner, Pagan, Wallace, Geweke along with Sims, Sargent and more. There seemed to be some rivalry between Sims and Sargent and we got a little proof of that when Chris was running down his presentation. Indeed Sargent asked a question that appeared to me to be in quite an aggressive tone: What's the trace of this matrix? My friend too agreed that was rude but told me that she read in one of Sargent's book that he thanked Sims for teaching him all that he knows. Which is a bit what he said yesterday. He also doesn't seem to have any solution to the current global economic problems. I think we should have him as our next Financial Secretary.

And don't miss listening to Chris Sims talking to someone from the Nobel Foundation. Sounds a bit more down-to-earth.

Economics Nobel Announced in Less Than One Hour

And you can watch it live on the Nobels website. Incidentally, this prize is attributed by the Central Bank of Sweden. Shouldn't this inspire the Bank of Mauritius to award a prize for bean-counting? Guess they should allow sharing of the prize.

Father of Test Tube Babies Wins Nobel

That's the news from Scandinavia today: British doctor Robert Edwards wins Nobel Prize in medicine for work he started in the 1950s which culminated in the birth of Louise Brown, the first test tube baby, in 1978. As many as 4 million babies have been born via his method since then. Read the press release and check out the high resolution graphic.

Physics Nobel is tomorrow, Chemistry on Wednesday, Literature on Thursday and Peace on Friday. Economics is on Monday.

Titmuss Didn't Win the Economics Nobel

Unlike what you heard the Prime Minister say on TV this evening. Only James Meade won it when he shared the prize with Bertil Ohlin in 1977. You want to scroll down a list of all the winners? Easy, click here. You want to read Meade's Nobel lecture? Find it here. You want to know who's gonna win the World Cup in South Africa? Hey, don't push your luck too far!