You are surely aware of my thrill at Muhammad Yunus’ Nobel. Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed John Tierney’s International Herald Tribune (Wednesday) piece, “Shopping for a Nobel.” Tierney questions the impact of micro-lending, and suggests, tongue only halfway in cheek, maybe less, that the Prize should instead have gone to Wal*Mart: “Has any organization in the world lifted more people out of poverty than Wal*Mart?” he asks.
Read it for yourself. It’s worth a chuckle—and a moment or more’s serious contemplation.
NB: I find the economics prize typically to be a farce. I can better understand what the physics winner has been up to than the econ winner—and I’m reasonably well trained in economics. But my simpler point is: Why don’t the economics prize judges look at the likes of Grameen and Muhammad Yunus? I hereby nominate MY for Nobel #2, next year’s economics prize.