Yesterday my psychologist showed me the university campus journal in which there was an article that 4 Nobel Prize recipents visited the faculty that I used to study. They were John Nash, Robert Aumann, Eric Maskin, and Robert Myerson. I didn´t know about the lecture because I stay most of the time at home.
Nash in his lecture said that it made no sense that some countries commit themsevels to carbon dioxide reduction while others didn´t (free riding problem?). He said that the effects of the emissions are not yet fully understood. Nash also said that he considers Paul Krugman as a "brillant economist". Alls my friends said that Paul Krugman won the 2008 Nobel Prize because he was the main critic of Bush´s administration and so it was a political reason.
Aumann spoke about the relatioship between game theory and war. He said that the motivations to make peace involve capacity to go to war and defend yourself. Autmann said the Romans were the nation who could achieve the longest period of peace (400 years of pax romana). Their motto was: "If you want peace prepare yourseves to war". He said that the cold war never developed to a full scale conflict beacuse of the certainty of mutual destruction that was "proved by mathematical analysis". He said that "it was not pleasant but it was true". On the other hand he said that the opposite of the cold war was world war two that was preceded by decades of peace negotiations. He said the prime minister Chamberlain made concessions to Hitler and therefore displaying that England was not ready for the war.
Eric Maskin in his lecture said that it was not possible to predict individual human behaviour with game theory but with a large number of people it was possible to predict average behaviour (steady state against one shot?). Maskin also praised China´s investments in R&D related to alternative energy sources. He said that western nations should do the same thing particularly USA who is not making similar investments in renewable energy sources. He also said that he always shared the view that financial markets are an institution that need government regulation. He said that 2008´s crisis only strengthened his believe in that idea.
Myerson said that he thinks that the regulatory reform of the financial system is the most important thing to restore credibility to the system. The other things he said were relative to my country. He said that he thought people should be able to vote for 3 deputies instead of one.
05 Sep 2010, 3:26 pm
