NOBEL PRIZE FOR ECONOMICS

Prof. Paul Krugman

The 2008 Nobel Prize for Economics was announced in November 2008.

I heard the news in the radio and saw it in TV as well as in the newspaper too.

The photograph of the person who got the coveted Prize was familiar to me because I have seen it in the newspaper THE HINDU which I read regularly.

Every week I read a column criticizing the US economic policy used to appear in it.

I used to read it with keen interest.

The article used to accompany a photograph of a person namely Paul Krugman who has a characteristic beard.

I thought he was a mere journalist, but when I heard that the Nobel Prize 2008 was awarded to him, I was surprised and realized the importance of his economic theory of trade analysis.

It is really a great fortune to read the columns of Krugman who happened to be the Nobel laureate.

Paul Krugman is a prolific columnist, aged 55 working as Professor in Princeton University in the US.

In fact, the economics of trade analysis determines the effects of free trade and globalization as well as the driving forces behind worldwide urbanization.

It is more appropriate that the Nobel Committee this year selected a subject which is more connected to the ongoing global financial crisis.

Moreover, according to the Nobel Committee, Krugman’s theory showed that globalization tends to increase the pressures on urban living because specialization sucks people into these centres of concentration through processes that can result in “regions become divided into a high technology urbanized core and a less developed ‘periphery’.”

Real global economics reflecting the actual situations in globalization and its significances and consequences is being studied in detail by economists all over the world.

But Paul Krugman, an American who could put his theory appropriately to the current situation gained importance.

Serious thoughts are to be converted into practical methods to solve the global economic and financial crises.

In general, politicians have to be enlightened with the intricacies of the supply and demand in relation to globalization.

Economics is a subject which is applied in politics and in many other fields for the benefit of social upsurge.

The institution of a Prize for economics by the Nobel group itself is showing the importance of economics for the society.

Krugman’s analysis of the American policy on market and finance is very interesting to those who are not specialized in economics like me.

But still his writings are so forceful and authentic with facts and figures.

In fact, I like his column very much whenever it appears in THE HINDU.

Congratulation to Prof. Paul Krugman and I appreciate his address to the Swedish public television.

“I’m a great believer in continuing to work. I hope it doesn’t change things too much” said Krugman.

My best wishes for many more thought provoking economic theories to come from him.