Robert Mundell, winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Economics, apparently created a list of the ten most important perks of winning the Nobel Prize and presented it on the Letterman Show. You can find the list in Bradford DeLong’s Blog. It might be due to cultural reasons, but I can’t find a lot on this list funny. And there’s only two items worth all the long years of hard work which usually precede such an award –

• 3. Any meaningless crap I say, the next day it’s in the Wall Street Journal
• 10. Can end almost any argument by asking, “And did you ever win a Nobel Prize?”

Let’s be honest. Who would not want to be able to stir up the financial world if in need of cash or be able to end a discussion by intellectual superiority without having to prove it ever again…