Dear Author: Romance Book Reviews, Author Interviews, and Commentary

While the Nobel jurists might think that US writers are insular and ignorant, the same can’t be said for US economists. Paul Krugman, a professor at Princeton and New York Times columnist, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics last night. He deserves it. He actually foresaw this current economic crisis and has been trying to warn us about it for years. In 2005, he made these comments:

These days Mr. Greenspan expresses concern about the financial risks created by “the prevalence of interest-only loans and the introduction of more-exotic forms of adjustable-rate mortgages.” But last year he encouraged families to take on those very risks, touting the advantages of adjustable-rate mortgages and declaring that “American consumers might benefit if lenders provided greater mortgage product alternatives to the traditional fixed-rate mortgage.
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How bad will that aftermath be? The U.S. economy is currently suffering from twin imbalances. On one side, domestic spending is swollen by the housing bubble, which has led both to a huge surge in construction and to high consumer spending, as people extract equity from their homes. On the other side, we have a huge trade deficit, which we cover by …

Two of the most notable book awards have gone to female authors.

Doris Lessing, 82 year old novelist whose writing scope is so broad that she cannot be categorized in any fashion, won the Nobel Prize for Literature. The following is a video in which Lessing is told of her award to which she responds with disgust “Oh Christ.”

Anne Enright was awarded England's Man Booker Prize for Fiction for The Gathering in a surprise victory over favorites: Mister Pip, by Lloyd Jones and On Chesil Beach, by Ian McEwan. She looks pretty pleased with her prize.