{"id":7603,"date":"2019-09-20T07:30:05","date_gmt":"2019-09-20T07:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themint.kinsta.cloud\/?p=7603"},"modified":"2019-09-25T05:52:56","modified_gmt":"2019-09-25T05:52:56","slug":"the-dawning-of-the-age-of-acquisitiveness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themintmagazine.com\/the-dawning-of-the-age-of-acquisitiveness\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dawning of the Age of Acquisitiveness"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1969, I was seven years old and largely oblivious to the historical events happening around the world.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon, half a million people came to Woodstock to hear Jimi Hendrix, and the Stonewall riots kicked off the gay liberation movement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That same year, 50 years ago, a less well-remembered event in Stockholm arguably shaped our world today even more. And not for the better. The King of Sweden presented with royal pomp the first-ever Nobel medals in economics. The fallout from that is the theme for our eleventh issue.<\/span><\/p>\n

The so-called Nobel Prize in Economic Science is a case of doubly mistaken identity that could be worthy of a Shakespearian comedy if the real-world impacts were not so tragic. First it\u2019s a mistake to call it a Nobel Prize \u2013 as it was created and funded by the Swedish Central Bank three-generations after the Alfred Nobel\u2019s family set up the real prize in his name to celebrate great work in science and medicine. And it\u2019s a mistake to cast economics as a science in the same way as physics.<\/span><\/p>\n

And? You may ask.<\/p>\n

Writing as the global financial crisis was trashing balance sheets and economists\u2019 reputations, former trader and\u00a0Black Swan<\/i>\u00a0author Nassim Nicholas Taleb had an answer.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Every time he\u2019s criticised the fake assumptions behind financial market theory, which lead to the crisis, he wrote: \u201cI have been abruptly countered with: \u201cthey have the Nobel\u201d, which I have found impossible to argue with.\u201d He concluded that \u201cthe prize is not just an insult to science; it has been putting the financial system at risk of blow-ups\u201d.<\/p>\n

And, it\u2019s not just left-wing thinkers\u00a0who\u2019ve criticised the Nobel prize in economic science. Friedrich von Hayek, Margaret Thatcher\u2019s favourite economist, said he had not thought it a good idea: \u201cOne reason was that I feared that such a prize\u2026 would tend to accentuate the swings of scientific fashion. [Another is] that the Nobel Prize confers on an individual an authority, which in economics no man ought to possess.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Nobel Prize confers on an individual an authority, which in economics no man ought to possess.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What\u2019s even more remarkable, he said that at the Nobel banquet after having received the prize, which his biographer says rescued his reputation and his conservative cause from relative obscurity.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve seen our social media recently, you\u2019ll know that we\u2019ve created a democratic alternative: the #NotTheNobel Prize, and it\u2019s been a great pleasure to see nominations pour in from around the world, including some people who are new to me. We will be announcing the winner at the end of a live-streamed event on 3 October following lively discussion of the finalists and live online voting. I can\u2019t wait.<\/p>\n

We have some prize-winning articles for you in this issue.\u00a0For the low-down on the \u201cfake\u201d Nobel that helped neoliberalism conquer the world\u201d check out Christian Felber\u2019s article. Of course, there have also been some really great winners of the Nobel: Ulrich Volz explains why he thinks Stieglitz is one of them while Andr\u00e9 Pedersen Ystehede and Stefan Kesting tell the fascinating tale of Schelling and his multiple talents.<\/span><\/p>\n

We also focus in this issue on economic development as arguably economic theory has caused most damage in the global south. We have an interview with Kenyan economist Mwangi wa G\u0129<\/span>th\u0129<\/span>nji on African economic policy, and articles from Alessandra Mezzadri on sweatshops and Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven and her collaborators on dependency theory.<\/p>\n

Ethics and values may have been chased out of the debate in top ranking economics journals, but not here.\u00a0Listen to our interview with Jonathan Aldred on his book\u00a0Licence to be Bad.<\/i><\/p>\n

And as this issue is not a bland monoculture\u2026\u00a0also check out Rita Samiolo on rankings, Nick Robins on how finance should deliver a just transition, and Andrew Black<\/span> on the \u201chero\u201d chief executive, Paul Polman. We also discover from Georgina Silvester why Handelsbanken, lauded by John Kay, is different.<\/p>\n

And of course our regular columns with Verity contemplating whether it is her year for a Nobel, the Outsider looking at what financial services the poor really need and our A level teacher reflecting on teaching the elite\u2019s offspring development economics.<\/p>\n

So do enjoy, join the #NotTheNobel online discussion and please do help us find fresh economic thinking for the 21st<\/sup> century.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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