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To: one_less who wrote (141097)	10/13/2008 11:40:59 AM
From: Land Shark	2 Recommendations Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 173976

US economist Paul Krugman wins Nobel Economics Prize 2 hours ago STOCKHOLM (AFP) — US economist Paul Krugman, a prolific New York Times columnist and fierce critic of Washington's economic policies, won the Nobel Economics Prize on Monday, the Nobel jury said. Krugman, 55, a Princeton University professor, has formulated a new trade analysis theory which determines the effects of free trade and globalisation, as well as the driving forces behind worldwide urbanisation, the citation said. Speaking to Swedish public television immediately after the prize announcement, Krugman said the award "obviously will seriously warp my next few days." "I hope that two weeks from now, I'm back to being pretty much the same person I was before," he said, adding: "I'm a great believer in continuing to do work. I hope it doesn't change things too much." The Nobel Economics Prize has been especially closely watched this year owing to the ongoing global financial crisis. A number of experts had predicted that the worldwide crisis would, in the future at least, prompt the Nobel committee to shift its focus further away from the heavily prized liberal market theories widely blamed for the mess. And by awarding Krugman, a critic of unfettered free-market policies who has focused heavily on globalisation and the developing world, the jury has indeed decided to confront major, civilisation-changing issues. In his New York Times columns, Krugman has stood out as a harsh critic of the Bush administration's free-market policies. He was also adamantly opposed to the initial wording of US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's 700-billion-dollar financial sector bailout plan -- which he described as "financial Russian roulette", although he conceded that a rescue was needed. On Sunday, he wrote admiringly of the British economic rescue scheme. "The Brown government has shown itself willing to think clearly about the financial crisis, and act quickly on its conclusions. And this combination of clarity and decisiveness hasn't been matched by any other Western government, least of all our own," he wrote. After winning the prize, he told the Swedish TT news agency the global financial crisis "has me extremely terrified." He said: "I'm happier about it now than I was five days ago. I was extremely happy with the European Summit yesterday, so I'm feeling better today, but it's still terrifying. "I never thought I would see anything that looked like 1931 in my lifetime, but in many ways this crisis does," he added. While he has had few kind words for George W. Bush's administration, which he has charged with engaging "in a game of deception" on Iraq and the economy, Krugman is even more sceptical of his possible successor John McCain and his pick for vice president. In a recent column he stated flatly that "the Obama campaign is wrong to suggest that a McCain-Palin administration would just be a continuation of Bush-Cheney. If the way John McCain and Sarah Palin are campaigning is any indication, it would be much, much worse." The Nobel committee hailed Krugman for his approach "based on the premise that many goods and services can be produced more cheaply in long series, a concept generally known as economies of scale." His theory shows that globalisation tends to increase the pressures on urban living because specialisation sucks people into these centres of concentration through processes that can result in "regions become divided into a high-technology urbanised core and a less developed 'periphery'," the Nobel jury said. Traditional trade theory assumes that differences between countries explains why some nations export agricultural products while others export industrial goods. Such a process holds out the prospect that some countries can improve their situations via a process of complementarity. But Krugman's "theory clarifies why worldwide trade is in fact dominated by countries which not only have similar conditions, but also trade in similar products," the Nobel jury wrote. His theory helps to explain that globalisation tends towards concentration, both in terms of what a manufacturing base makes, and where it is located. The Nobel committee has thus focused on an area of economic theory with deep and wide implications for the understanding of how globalisation affects industries, populations, regions and the structure of trade, particularly in developing countries. The issue of ever greater concentration in cities is a major policy issue everywhere but particularly in developing countries where cities tend to lack adequate infrastructure, and migration to suburbs adds acutely to urban environmental pollution. Krugman is the author of dozens of books and several hundred articles, primarily about international trade and global finance and was known as creating so-called "new economic geography." In 1991, he received the American Economic Assiciation's John Bates Clark medal. He will receive his Nobel gold medal and diploma along with 10 million Swedish kronor (1.42 million dollars, 1.02 million euros) at a formal prize ceremony in Stockholm on December 10.