23. SOMETHING FOR THE GRANDCHILDREN

A good timelines is a terrible thing to waste.

We have arrived at the end of a long story about the first and last new Nobel prize – the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, to give it its proper name. It is time to say what it means. As a carefully curated timeline of rapidly developing science, the prize is in trouble. So what?

To answer the question, it will be helpful to retrace the story’s steps. To make it easier to follow along, I have sent separately a list of episodes. A reminder, too, that I write as a critic, not a reporter. And this final installment, I write in the heroic present tense, because that was how the story unfolded.