Tyler Cowen & Alex Tabarrok Explain The Economic Nobel Prize Winner’s Work

Meet Nobel Laureates Hansen , Shiller & Fama

 

 

 

 

 

Lars Peter Hansen Nobelist

” Hansen’s work is the most technical and most difficult to explain to a layperson. The brief version is that in 1982 Hansen developed the Generalized Method of Moments a new and elegant way to estimate many economic models that requires fewer assumptions and is often more powerful than other methods.”

 

 

Robert Shiller, Nobel Laureate

” Robert Shiller spent much of his career at Yale University.  He is a famous economist for his analysis of speculative bubbles and price overreaction to new information, first in stock markets and then later in real estate markets.  He has been a leading candidate for a Nobel Prize for some time now.

Here is Shiller’s home page.  Here is Shiller on Wikipedia.  Here are short columns by Shiller on Project Syndicate.  He also writes regularly for the Sunday New York Times, and some of his columns are here.  Here is a 2005 David Leonhardt profile of Shiller.”

 

 

Eugene Fama, Nobel Prize Laureate

” Fama has been long-deserving for some time now.  He won basically for his empirical work on asset prices.

Here is Fama on Wikipedia.  Here is Fama on scholar.google.com.

Fama teaches at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago and he is very much in the classic mold of a Chicago School economist.  I feared that with the financial crisis Fama would be too unpopular a pick, because many people misinterpret “efficient markets theory,” so this was a prize which valued the economic impact of the research over the trendiness.  That said, giving the prize to Shiller as well is a nod in the direction of behavioral finance and inefficient markets theory, so the committee covered all the bases.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Bipartisan Agreement – Enough Of The Ivy League Good Ole Boy Presidents Network

Poll: No More Harvard, Yale Presidents!

 

 

” Despite electing Yale and Harvard graduates for the last four consecutive presidents, Americans overwhelmingly want the next president to come from a non-Ivy League school, according to a national poll of likely voters.

Rasmussen Reports found that just 5 percent think it’s better for American to have an Ivy president. A staggering 85 percent believe its better for presidents to come from a variety of schools, not just the elite eight.

President Obama attended Harvard Law. Both Bush’s went to Yale as did former President Clinton.

Unlike most polls, there was no partisan disagreement in Rasmussen’s survey.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Kerry Would Know … He’s Living Proof Of American’s Stupidity

John Kerry Says Americans ‘Have A Right To Be Stupid’

 

He can't even be trusted with a gun

 

 

” Kerry addressed a town hall meeting Tuesday in a packed Internet cafe during a nine-country dash through Europe and the Middle East. The trip is Kerry’s first as secretary of state.

At the town hall, Kerry urged Germans to be tolerant, noting that in America, ‘you have a right to be stupid.’

‘In America, you have a right to be stupid, if you want to be,’ he said. ‘And you have a right to be disconnected to somebody else if you want to be. And we tolerate that – we somehow make it through that.”

 

Is Lurch auditioning for Joe Biden’s job ?

 

 

John Kerry’s Grades

Posted by John Moser

” Big news this morning from the Boston Globe. During the campaign John Kerry had consistently refused to release his records from Yale University, along with his records of…well, just about everything. Today, however, we understand why: his grades were on par with–if not actually somewhat lower than–those earned by George W. Bush.

The transcript shows that Kerry’s freshman-year average was 71. He scored a 61 in geology, a 63 and 68 in two history classes, and a 69 in political science. His top score was a 79, in another political science course. Another of his strongest efforts, a 77, came in French class.

Imagine that.”

 

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Biggest Endowments … Biggest Tuitions

The 10 Richest Colleges in America

 

 

 

” As tuition costs continue to mount at universities across the nation, some colleges are sitting on mountains of cash.

And while some of that cash goes to regular campus operations or scholarships for students with financial need, many schools don’t really use it at all, investing the money to fund big future projects. And sometimes, when the economy tanks, the money simply gets lost in the market.

Private schools rely on alumni and corporate sponsors to raise funds for the school’s endowment fund, and while some endowments face restrictions in how money gets spent (as in some donations can be spent only after a certain amount of time, or can be invested only so as to use the profits, not the capital), many leading universities have taken criticism for collecting the money and sitting on it while raising costs for students.

The most recent comprehensive endowment study from the National Association of College and University Business Owners, which evaluated the endowment funds for 839 institutions in the U.S. as of last year, found 75 with more than $1 billion in the bank.

Here are the 10 richest universities in the U.S.”

Related articles

• Penn’s endowment up 2.6 percent, Penn State’s up 3.6 percent (bizjournals.com)
• Harvard Should Put Its Endowment into an Index Fund (247wallst.com)
• Regents, university presidents make budget pitch to Iowa lawmakers (thegazette.com)
• In a Volatile Economy, Colleges’ Endowment Returns Fall Flat (chronicle.com)
• Mercer County Community College proposes hikes in tuition and fees (nj.com)
• More public colleges may freeze tuition rates in return for more taxpayer support (omaha.com)

Questions Galore Regarding Menendez’s Pal , Dr. Salomon Melgen

Harvard, Yale Deny Connection To Controversial Democratic Donor Under Scrutiny

 

Dr. Salomon Melgen with Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, Francisco Sanchez. (Voxxi Photo)

 

“A controversial donor with ties to prominent Democrats who is under investigation by the FBI may not have the qualifications he claims.

The resume of Dr. Salomon Melgen, a Florida-based ophthalmologist and controversial Democratic donor, boasts medical education and experience at Harvard University, Yale University, and the University of Missouri.

But none of those schools says it can find any record of Melgen, who claims to be a Harvard alumnus, the former chief resident of the University of Missouri’s ophthalmology department, and a former Yale intern.

Melgen is at the center of a Senate panel probing potential ethics violations by Sen. Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), who may have used his official position to benefit Melgen, a major campaign contributor.

Menendez is also under scrutiny for failing to disclose his use of Melgen’s private jet to take trips to the Dominican Republic in 2010. Menendez denied wrongdoing but in January of this year wrote Melgen a personal check for $58,500 to cover the cost of the flights.

Additionally, the federal agents raided Melgen’s office as part of a Medicare fraud investigation last week.”

 

   Under-aged prostitutes , medicare fraud and let’s not forget alleged influence peddling by Senator Menendez on Melgen’s behalf and how could we forget the illegal alien/registered sex offender intern that Menendez employed .

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Obamadon Gracilis … Lizard President … How Apt

‘Dino-killer’ Asteroid Nearly Saw Off Snakes And Lizards Too

 

” The asteroid collision that killed off the dinosaurs 65.5 million years ago also nearly wiped out snakes and lizards – including a newly-identified species of lizard named for President Obama.

As many as 83 percent of all snake and lizard species died off, says the Yale team, far more than previously realized. The bigger the creature, the more likely it was to become extinct – indeed, no species larger than one pound survived. ”

 

A lizard is certainly the appropriate choice . The only more apt selection might be a dog .

 

” And while reassessing previously collected fossils, the team came across an unnamed species which they called Obamadon gracilis – meaning something like ‘slender Obama-tooth’. It likely measured less than one foot long and probably ate insects.”

 

 

Related articles

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• Ancient Extinct Lizard Named After President Obama (usnews.com)
• Asteroid wiped out reptile species (independent.ie)
• Extinct lizard named after Obama (politico.com)