The Prize by Any Other Name

["John Gelles" <johng@xxxxxxxxxx>]

        My sincere thanks to Per Gunnar Bergulund for
        allowing us to share thoughts about Alfred Nobel,
        the Royal Academy of Science's Committee for
        the Bank of Sweden Prize in economics, the
        difference between doing good as a scientist and
        doing your best as an economist, and the current
        feelings of certain heirs of Alfred Nobel.

        Similar thanks must go to all involved in the Nobel
        prizes, including the heirs above and the actual
        people who have awarded the many prizes over
        the years, as well as those who got the prizes.

        If we look at all the prizes that get our attention,
        the Nobel's stand up as the best if our measure is
        close to Albert Nobel's expressed intention. No
        doubt the record is less than perfect. But the
        awards are deserving of the good reputation
        most of them enjoy.

        As to economics?  Can ant good come of it?
        Was the warm feeling many of us had when
        Vickery won the prize totally bogus?  I don't
        think so.

        We wish God, himself, gave prizes -- and that
        he always consulted each one of us before he
        did. Our wish has been denied. But the Nobel
        prize in economics, if awarded to one of our
        own, makes it a better day.

        Yes, it has often gone to winners we didn't
        respect. Bus is not the acid test: "Do we prefer
        the prizes, with all their faults, to a different
        world -- where news of the lesser prizes we
        suffer were all we ever heard?'

        John Gelles