"Now he'll be really insufferable." That was my friend Gary when Paul Krugman won the Nobel Prize. Not a crazy call, really: for all his acuity, Krugman has always a had a tendency to run to shrill. One could hardly be surprised if winning The Big One only made him moreso.
But not so, not so? My impression, from what I've seen of Krugman since the prize, is that if anything, it has left humbled. It's hard to imagine he didn't expect it, or at least assume he was entitled to it--but maybe not just yet. And anyway, when it comes--Ma! It's the Nobel!
So maybe he is just in a state of shock. Let him get to Stockholm, let him put on the fancy duds,* let him take the podium. Maybe once it sinks in, we'll see the real Paul. I kind of hope not; the humble one, I kind of like.
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*Claude Summers, Penn law prof who won the labor equivalent of a Nobel, likes to tell about how he went to the rental shop to get decked out for the ceremony. The clerk asked-Clyde can do this in Swedish--is it for the funeral, or for the prize?
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