Edmund Phelps

Tyler Cowan may have been prophetic about the award of the Nobel Prize for Economics. No one can contest Phelps' right to the Nobel Prize. He suffered through the fires of contention from 1959. He established proof vindicating the augmented Philips Curve. His work since then has been of high order, fully in the Peer realm of Contemporary Economists. He deserves it, if Anybody does, and likely should have received it twenty years ago.

The decision of the Academy, though, remains a testamont to staying above the fray. The Academy and Bank resides in a high welfare state climate. They live in a land where Taxes remain high Percentage, and most of the Decision-makers are past Contributors to the Welfare State environment in which they reside. Edmund Phelps was a known quantity easily accepted, coming prior to the post-Reagan era arguments which have sanded all younger Contenders with partisan grit. They had to stretch in their efforts, but they found their Consensus nomination.

Will Phelps make a good Nobel laureate? Absolutely! Did he even exist in the Betting pools around Academia? Who knows. Is Everyone satisfied? No, and the conflict between economic streams of Thought only delays, it does not settle any issues. The Academy found a Short-term Solution, but Longterm directional trends in economic thought still awaits. lgl