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Comment by jhbadger | Hacker News Reader

It's hardly "anti-intellectual" to note that unlike the actual prizes funded by Nobel over a century ago, the economics "Nobel" was created by the Swedish Central Bank only 50 years ago. That's not exactly an unbiased source. If there was no chemistry prize and Dow Chemical or Bayer stepped in to create one, it wouldn't be anywhere as respected as the actual Chemistry Nobel, would it?

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The anti-intellectual part was to claim that the awarding of prizes to prominent scientists only served to promote a certain ideology. It is like saying that the Nobel Prize for Medicine would exist only to promote orthodox medicine.

> If there was no chemistry prize and Dow Chemical or Bayer stepped in to create one, it wouldn't be anywhere as respected as the actual Chemistry Nobel, would it?

The Nobel Prize was created by the owner of a Swedish chemical and weapons company. I don't see what's so great about it.

And as for the Swedish Central Bank, I think Paul Krugman hit the nail on the head: Oh, and cue the usual complaints that this isn’t a “real” Nobel. Hey, this is just a prize given by a bunch of Swedes, as opposed to the other prizes, which are given out by, um, bunches of Swedes.

I think its still fair to say that economics is not a science the way medicine is.

>I think its still fair to say that economics is not a science the way medicine is.

Which is very unfortunate, because like medicine, the practice of economics has the power to influence decisions and affect lives.

The only difference is that people who reject medicine are rightfully considered delusional.

> ... funded by Nobel over a century ago, the economics "Nobel" was created by the Swedish Central Bank only 50 years ago.

So will the Economics Nobel be legitimate when it turns 100 then?

The official Nobel site lists the Economics prize:

* https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/

What other authority on the matter is there than the actual organization itself?

There can be no legitimate Nobel Prizes added because Nobel is dead.

This smells of "No true Scotsman" IMHO.

I like how this is going towards “Swedish Central Bank is a for-profit organisation”

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