Krugman wins Economics Nobel. The reality, though, is that economics prizes are awarded for careers. Krugman’s early work put him on the list of likely Nobelists, but his career took an unusual turn around the time of the 2000 election campaign. While he has still been active in academic research, Krugman’s career for the last eight years or more has been dominated by his struggle (initially a very lonely one) against the lies of the Bush Administration, its supporters and enablers. Undoubtedly, the award of the prize in this of all years, reflects an appreciation of this work on behalf of truth in economics and politics more generally. — Quiggan

A fierce critic of the Bush administration and a specialist in the kind of kind of financial crisis now gripping the globe has won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics. Professor Paul Krugman of Princeton University has repeatedly attacked the Bush administration in his twice-weekly New York Times columns and extensively studied the so-called “liquidity trap” into which Japan fell for more than a decade and into which it is now feared the US might fall. — Peter Martin

He is cited for trade theory and, appropriately, location theory and economic geography. He could have been cited for his work on currency crises as well. Here are the most basic links on Paul, it is hard to know where to start. I have to say I did not expect him to win until Bush left office, as I thought the Swedes wanted the resulting discussion to focus on Paul’s academic work rather than on issues of politics. So I am surprised by the timing but not by the choice. — Marginal Revolution [via Larvatus Prodeo]

Krugman’s highlights. Paul Krugman’s earlier work was rejected consistently. When George Shepherd and I wrote to him (in 1993) researching our article on classic rejections he wrote back: “This is in response to your letter of April 3 requesting stories about paper rejections — if any, you say!! As it happened, your letter arrived in the same day’s mail as the second rejection of a paper that I thought (and still think) is one of my better ones. I don’t know what other peoples’ experience is, but I would estimate that 60% of my papers sent to refereed journals have been rejected on the first try.” And this was during his hey-day. — Core Economics