Nobel Hat Trick

It is rare that I have a kind word to say about the Nobel Prize Committees.  (Committees, plural, by the way--each Prize has it's own committee).  But this year--wow!

In descending order of impressiveness:

1. Literature:  Mario Vargas Llosa

Normally, this Prize is a Joke--they give it to all sorts of mediocrities.  But, this year, they got it right.  Llosa is excellent.  I have read a half-dozen of his novels and a collection of non-fiction essays.  I  enjoyed them all.  Interestingly, though, I have never recommended any of them to anyone else.  The best one I have read was The War of the End of the World, which is too long to be a good book to recommend to a first-time reader.  The others, I have read were all shorter, and while I enjoyed every one of them, I was never quite certain that anyone else would like them as much as I did.  But, now with the stamp of the Nobel Committee on them, I will happily start recommending them widely.  I would recommend starting with either The Storyteller or Death in the Andes--but if you get a recommendation from someone who has read more of his work, take it--since I have read only a third of his novels, it is quite possible that I still haven't read the best.

2. Peace: Liu Xiaobo

This prize is always a Joke.  But, this year, they actually stumbled into giving it to someone worthy of attention.  I have no idea what Liu has done to promote the cause of Peace since he is now in prison.  But, by giving attention to a political prisoner who has been unjustly imprisoned for daring to ask for greater freedom in China, the Prize has some merit.  And, just to show how open and honest they really are, China is now censoring all mention of Liu on the Internet in China.  Sadly, the Chinese authorities do not see the irony of censoring all mentions of Liu on the Internet in order to prove that he is a criminal for accusing them of depriving people of freedom.  [Incidentally, if their filter is working well, this web page is as of right now censored in China.]

3. Economics: Diamond, Mortensen, and Pissarides

This Prize has lately turned into the Prize in which the committee picks an idea and then figures out who will get the award.  This year the Prize goes to the idea of Search Frictions--markets do not always clear instantly and sometimes there are things which slow down the market clearing process.  This is particularly noticeable in the labor market.  All three of these guys did good, solid work on that idea.  None of them would really merit the Nobel on his own, but they are a good set of people to receive the ward on behalf of the Idea.