4 ms·

Flagged because while Krugman has a Nobel prize, his NY editorials are mostly politics.

jgrahamc 17y ago
And his prize is for economics. Which, to my mind, is a bogus subject. It's worth knowing that there is no "Nobel Prize in Economics". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Memorial_Prize_in_Economic_Sciences http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Memorial_Prize_in_Economi... Alfred Nobel did not leave money for an economics prize. There are no 'discoveries' in economics, it's a flight of fancy.
- michael_dorfman 17y ago
  Economics is a bogus subject? What other subjects don't you approve of? Psychology? Philosophy? History? And: as the page you linked to properly points out, the fact that Alfred Nobel didn't leave money in his will for an Economics prize didn't stop others from funding a prize in Nobel's memory, which is awarded by the same people who award the other Nobel Prizes, following the rules set down in Nobel's will. If the prize is good enough for the Nobel Foundation, it's good enough for me.
  - jganetsk 17y ago
    It's not a question of whether he approves or disapproves. It's a question of whether economics deserves a Nobel... do psychology, philosophy, and history have Nobels?
  - jibiki 17y ago
    > What other subjects don't you approve of? Psychology? Philosophy? History? I suspect you'd find a surprising number of people on HN who think (most) psychology is bogus. Ditto for philosophy, nutrition, economics, etc. Any field where there is a long, unresolved disagreement about basic facts, comprehensible to lay people, will attract a certain level of skepticism (if the economists don't believe each other, how are we supposed to believe any of them.)
- iamwil 17y ago
  There's also no Nobel Prize for Mathematics. If mathematics is also a bogus subject, then it'd be worth knowing that there is no Nobel Prize for Economics.
- dantheman 17y ago
  You sir, are incorrect, there are lots of discoveries in economics. They are just not empirical they are derived from logic and the study of human action. When studying a complex dynamical system its is impossible to make predictions, but there are fundamental laws that can guide human action and understanding. For instance, when printing money inflation occurs, by definition inflation is a term to describe increase in the amount of money. Now all things being equal when there is an increase in the amount of money prices will in general go up, more dollars chasing the same number of goods. If you're interested in solid well grounded economics, I highly encourage you to look at Carl Menger, Frédéric Bastiat, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and Murray Rothbard. There are of course many more, but they are giants. Knowledge and information transmission and dispersal is a key economic domain. The price system is perhaps the most powerful information system ever invented since it allows people all over the world who have never met and to coordinate their behavior in mutual beneficial ways. A quick easy read is Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth (http://mises.org/econcalc.asp http://mises.org/econcalc.asp) is a clear example of how economic thought can be applied to predict outcomes of various systems, but notice it doesn't say in 10 years X will happen.

And his prize is for economics. Which, to my mind, is a bogus subject. It's worth knowing that there is no "Nobel Prize in Economics". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Memorial_Prize_in_Economic_Sciences http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Memorial_Prize_in_Economi... Alfred Nobel did not leave money for an economics prize. There are no 'discoveries' in economics, it's a flight of fancy.

michael_dorfman 17y ago
Economics is a bogus subject? What other subjects don't you approve of? Psychology? Philosophy? History? And: as the page you linked to properly points out, the fact that Alfred Nobel didn't leave money in his will for an Economics prize didn't stop others from funding a prize in Nobel's memory, which is awarded by the same people who award the other Nobel Prizes, following the rules set down in Nobel's will. If the prize is good enough for the Nobel Foundation, it's good enough for me.
- jganetsk 17y ago
  It's not a question of whether he approves or disapproves. It's a question of whether economics deserves a Nobel... do psychology, philosophy, and history have Nobels?
- jibiki 17y ago
  > What other subjects don't you approve of? Psychology? Philosophy? History? I suspect you'd find a surprising number of people on HN who think (most) psychology is bogus. Ditto for philosophy, nutrition, economics, etc. Any field where there is a long, unresolved disagreement about basic facts, comprehensible to lay people, will attract a certain level of skepticism (if the economists don't believe each other, how are we supposed to believe any of them.)
iamwil 17y ago
There's also no Nobel Prize for Mathematics. If mathematics is also a bogus subject, then it'd be worth knowing that there is no Nobel Prize for Economics.
dantheman 17y ago
You sir, are incorrect, there are lots of discoveries in economics. They are just not empirical they are derived from logic and the study of human action. When studying a complex dynamical system its is impossible to make predictions, but there are fundamental laws that can guide human action and understanding. For instance, when printing money inflation occurs, by definition inflation is a term to describe increase in the amount of money. Now all things being equal when there is an increase in the amount of money prices will in general go up, more dollars chasing the same number of goods. If you're interested in solid well grounded economics, I highly encourage you to look at Carl Menger, Frédéric Bastiat, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and Murray Rothbard. There are of course many more, but they are giants. Knowledge and information transmission and dispersal is a key economic domain. The price system is perhaps the most powerful information system ever invented since it allows people all over the world who have never met and to coordinate their behavior in mutual beneficial ways. A quick easy read is Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth (http://mises.org/econcalc.asp http://mises.org/econcalc.asp) is a clear example of how economic thought can be applied to predict outcomes of various systems, but notice it doesn't say in 10 years X will happen.