Obama Fed Nominee Wins Nobel in Economics

Americans Peter Diamond and Dale Mortensen and British-Cypriot citizen Christopher Pissarides won the 2010 Nobel economics prize today for developing theories that help explain how economic policies can affect unemployment. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences says the trio won the prestigious award "for their analysis of markets with search frictions."

"The laureates' models help us understand the ways in which unemployment, job vacancies, and wages are affected by regulation and economic policy," the citation said. Diamond, 70, an economist at MIT and authority on Social Security, pensions, and taxation, has been nominated by President Obama to become a member of the Federal Reserve. However, the Senate failed to approve his nomination before lawmakers left to campaign for the midterm congressional elections. Mortensen, 71, is an economics professor at Northwestern University; Pissarides, 62, is a professor at the London School of Economics.
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