Preemptive Strike

The papers, the blogosphere and Facebook are all full of comments on Obama being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize today. They vary from (perhaps only in Sweden) "it's time to bring the peace prize back to Sweden" and "what were they thinking" to "great, best choice they could have ever made". But one of the best commentaries must be this one:

Pfuffnick's Nobel Economics Prize triumph hailed by many
LONDON

The surprise choice of first-year graduate student Quintus Pfuffnick for the Nobel Prize in Economics drew praise from much of the world Friday even as many pointed out the youthful economist has not yet published anything in scholarly journals.

The new PhD candidate was hailed for his willingness to tackle difficult problems, his commitment to improving the economic system, and his goal of bringing efficiency and equality into harmony.

Professor Paul Krugman of Princeton, who won the prize in 2008, said Pfuffnick's award shows great things are expected from him in the coming years.

"In a way, it's an award coming near the beginning of the first year in grad school of a relatively young economist that anticipates an even greater contribution towards making our economy a better place for all," he said. "It is an award that speaks to the promise of Mr Pfuffnick's message of hope."

He said the prize is a "wonderful recognition of Pfuffnick's essay in his grad school application."

I think it actually illustrates really well why it's a really puzzling selection. Obama is great, no question about it, but he hasn't done much for world peace, yet. And maybe it is the "yet" the Oslo Nobel Committee was thinking about. They want to make sure Obama fulfils all expectations on him. And it might be correct thinking that he's one of the few people who could actually do something tangible with the price so-to-speak. But I still think there are so many people out there who deserved it much more than Obama. That said, I hope this will be the preemptive strike people are hoping for.

Nobel Guy

I was happy to hear yesterday that one of my favourite economists, Paul Krugman, won the Nobel Prize in Economics. I like the way he blogs about winning the prize, ""a funny thing happened to me this morning"!