December 10th, 2007

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Honorable members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen.

I have a purpose here today. It is a purpose I have tried to serve for many years. I have prayed that God would show me a way to accomplish it.

ONCE UPON A TIME…

A water bearer in China had two large pots; each hung on the ends of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it. The other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer carrying only one and a half pots of water to his house.

Fame used to be a result of some sort of human achievement.  Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar were famous for conquering more of the known world than anyone before them.  Jesus and Mohammed were famous for the philosophies they preached and the religions their teachings spawned.  Francis Drake was famous for circumnavigating the globe, Charles Lindberg for flying across the Atlantic and Marilyn Monroe for being the first sexual icon of pop culture.  Then there’s Tommy Lee, Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton—they are famous for, well, for being famous. 

The trouble with economics is that, thinking we already know what it is, we often choose not to go there. Professional economists themselves are largely responsible; the highly abstract language with which their domain has been ring-fenced designates a protected area whose assumptions must be tacitly accepted before one is given entry. It is therefore a refreshing change to discover an economics that is built on its own logic, a logic which is able both to examine the erroneous thinking that lies at the root of the many and various anti-social outcomes of the prevailing economic order, and which can also find a practical foundation in thinking that starts with the human being.