Skip to main content

Paul Krugman wins the Nobel

Paul Krugman, a Professor and columnist has won the nobel for Economics this year for his work on 'analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity'.

Aged 55, he writes a column for New York Times pretty much like the one Swaminathan S. Aiyer writes for The Time of India titled Swaminomics. Where he explains different economic issues in the language of the layman.

Simplifying a subject matter, without compromising with the content, has been my interest for a long time.
Its my belief that almost any thing, from the concept of Black Holes to study of trade patterns, are all very simple. It takes a great mind to identify the simplicity and even a better mind to express it thus. I have read a few of Krugman's New York Times articles and they are treat to read for exactly this reason. Swaminomics has the same charm and the precise reason why I follow it religiously, and so do most people I know.

Maurice Obstfeld, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley has this to say.....

Some people think that something deep only comes out of great
complexity.... Paul’s great strength is to take something very simple and make
something new and very profound.

A couple of days back I had not heard of Paul Krugman, I can be excused for this because economics has never been a subject for me as a student and has cought my fancy only recently. But, now that I have discovered him, thanks to the Nobel prize, I intend to follow him more closely. I have spent more than a couple of hours reading him and like I said earlier he is treat to read.

Before I close, I will leave you with his reaction to the Noble Prize and also links to a couple of his articles.

To be absolutely, totally honest, I thought this day might come some day,
but I was absolutely convinced it wasn’t going to be this day, I know people who
live their lives waiting for this call, and it’s not good for the soul. So I put
it out of my mind and stopped thinking about it.

The links to his articles:

No Pain, No Gain?

Bits, Bands and Books

Comments

Indrajeet said…
Hi Utpal,
I liked this article alot coz this man really needs kudos for what he does and for which he's very rightly rewarded.
I too have been following his articles thanks to "The Hindu" where his articles feature regularly.
Anyways thats gr8 that u have made a blog entry about this person and in such a nice style.
Good keep it up!!!

Popular posts from this blog

Indian Crab Syndrome by Shobha John

I remember watching the movie 'Ek Doctor Ki Maut' on DD many many years ago. Pankaj Kapoor plays a doctor whose seminal research is met with stiff peer opposition. The movie was inspired by the real-life story of Dr. Subhash Mukhopadhaya. Dr. Subhash's story is tragic and the movie brilliantly portrays his frustration and in effect portrays the story of all individual in India who dare to have a mind of their own, or is creative or has seminal ideas. Sadly, hierarchical structures in all aspect of human life is a truth in India and this fosters nepotism, false sense of entitlement and concentrates all power at the top. Energy is spent on fighting this structure instead of doing something constructive. A piece in the Times of India made me remember the movie and I felt like sharing that article on this blog. The article titled 'Indian Crab Syndrome' can be fond here . The article follows. Indian Crab Syndrome by Shobha John Anyone who challenges the prevailing

Government is listening?

This country has seen worse incidences of terror and destruction. The Kosi River killed much more than a lot of terror incidences. It was a calamity for which nature was not wholly responsible. Rather the reasons were man made. Definite negligence from political leadership and government officials. The same reasons that made last week incidence possible. So what makes the TAJ incidence so unique that the people of the country have woken up and have become vocal? I think the people of this country have always been vocal of their plight. Only this time the ones who are vocal are the people that matter. These are the country’s elite and for some reason have more say in the functioning of the world. When a helpless villager in far away interior Bihar expresses his tragedy of losing his family to the floods, it makes for a good fifteen minutes of news time. Nothing more.

CWG 2010: India's Pride

"Indians defecate everywhere", commented Naipaul in his "Area of Darkness", the first book in the trilogy on India. As an outsider, this is how he viewed Indians on his first visit to India. Off course, many of us thought it to be a statement made due to ignorance of what Indianness is and we openly romanticize the idea of a 'maidan' visit early in the morning. Sanitation is a western concept and therefore we don't really think very highly of it. We do not want our feces to go to waste and would rather use it to fertilize our agricultural land. We take pride in such organic way of life. With the scarcity of space in urban environments we have been forced to defecate in our own homes. A revolting idea. We do that with a lot of shame but we do makeup by urinating in open public spaces. It satisfies our urge to be and behave Indian. The Indian government being Indian supports this idea of Indianness by not providing basic sanitary amenities and util