Comments

USA USA! SUV SUV!

Posted by sean at October 4, 2006 12:46 PM

Tom, Denmark rocks, just spent last two days in Randers, in the North, please don't add it to your list of potential States!

Posted by Patrick at October 4, 2006 1:10 PM

Not a chance Patrick--I'm still smarting from having missed out on American Samoa.

Posted by tom peters at October 4, 2006 3:00 PM

Sean .... But we Brits (with help of our European friends) won the Ryder Cup and we still lead you in Music, the Arts and of course the REAL football! which we all know is the important stuff :-)

Posted by Trevor Gay at October 4, 2006 4:38 PM

Endless insignificant US Economic Nobel Laureates, but no Hernando de Soto so far - it's rigged! (And I'm a U. Chicago graduate.)

Posted by Mike L at October 4, 2006 4:48 PM

Tom

Rejoice! This may seem a strange reponse to your blog but it brings together a number of themes running through your recent missives.

I would like to pose three questions.

First and foremost - Where are the next 5 of 5 American Nobel Prize Winners working right now? I ask this question because these awards have such long gestation periods that they sometimes seem almost irrelevant to modern times.

Second and related to some of the frustration you have expressed in your recent blogs. Is America now officially in decline? I remember while touring Italy with my young family about five years ago that I was struck by just how many Italians live off the deeds of past heroes.

My third question has probably been prompted by reading your blogs and some of the comments they have evoked over the past three months. Has America finally entered that downward spiral wherein more people are looking back at their outstanding history than actively creating it?

Trust you are well and having fun Tom!

Richard

Posted by Richard Lipscombe at October 4, 2006 6:35 PM

Go, Stanford! And cheers to all the rest of the Nobel winners.

Posted by cathy mosca at October 5, 2006 11:44 AM

Dear Tom:

Once more education wins.

The world needs a lot of education and a lot of people that make significant changes for good.

10 Nobel Prizes or more every year is good. However they are never enough for all the needs and problems the world have.

Hopefully every year this grow and grow.

With best regards

Juan Miguel Robles Vargas
General Manager
Deisa
Guadalajara, Mexico

Posted by Juan Miguel Robles Vargas at October 5, 2006 2:31 PM

Mike: "but no Hernando de Soto"--Economics Prize announced next week, right?? (I'm a fanatic de Soto fan--but then I'm a Hayekian-private property nut. I'n not U Chicago, but it was a thrill when, a few years ago, I was asked by U Chicago Press to endorse a new Hayek collection; my 1992 book, Liberation Management, had a lot of Hayek in it.)

Posted by tom peters at October 5, 2006 3:18 PM

Richard, quick partial response. While the Nobel lag time is enormous as you say, the key is that the presence of these guys acts as a young-stars attractant for years and years. (I've seen this close up at Stanford and Cal Berkeley.)(Think Einstein at the Advanced Institute ...) Also, though most are not so productive on research, many-most are exceptionally full of vitality and turn to the equally important role of Mentoring with the same vigor they brought to their early work.

Posted by tom peters at October 5, 2006 3:24 PM