B squared + RTF = 0

I read Sylvia Nasar’s biography of John Nash, A Beautiful Mind (1998), which also has been made a movie. John Nash won the Nobel in economics in 1994, but is equally famous for his serious mental disorders which he recovered from in the early nineteen ninties. ‘B squared + RTF = 0′ is a ‘very personal’ equation Nash used, while he was ill, to describe his life when he was at MIT (see chapter 21, A Beautiful Mind). Of course, he used an equation to describe his life. ‘The equation represents a three-dimensional hyperspace, which has a singularity at the origin, in four-dimensional space. Nash is the singularity, the special point, and the other variables are people who affected him’ Sylvia Nasar writes about the equation. Sometimes, I recognize something of myself in the Nash Nasar describes, bar the genius, of course. I have not come to the point where I feel like describing my life with an equation, though, and if I do, it probably won’t be four-dimensional.

Nash did marvelous mathematical research at MIT, but he also lead a chaotic life. My life is quite marvelous most of the time; my research, however…

Nobel, Schnobel

Obama??!! Gimme a break!

The Economics of Uncertainty, or How I’m Connected to Borch and Clive Granger

Something funny happened this morning. A small chain of events led me to be in the possesion of Clive W. Granger‘s copy of Karl Henrik Borch‘s The Economics of Uncertainty (1968).

What’s so funny about that? Well, Karl Henrik Borch was a Norwegian economist who had a big influence on the development of my school, the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration; one of the auditoriums there is named after him. Academically, Borch played an important role in the development of insurance economics. Clive W. Granger was an economist from UC San Diego. He was a giant in econometrics and was awarded the Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel in 2003. When I was a grad student at UCSD in 2007/2008, I was fortunate enough to meet Clive.

This morning I came across some leftover books from Clive’s office outside the Econ department at UCSD (I’m visiting here). Among them, I found Borch’s book. It feels almost morbid to have this book, but also, as a friend told me, it was a find and I am very happy with it.

Time to get a haircut?

Steven Levitt is having his:

I have a colleague who told me some time back that he had identified a strong leading indicator of economists who think they are on the short list for winning the prize: getting a haircut the week before the Nobel is announced. He claims to have many data points supporting his theory.

The economics Nobel is announced Monday. If I’m not mistaken, this very colleague is sporting a snazzy new haircut.