New York CNN Business —The Nobel in economics is sort of the step-cousin of the Nobel family. Some scholars really dislike the economics prize, including one of Nobel’s own descendants, who dismissed it as a “PR coup by economists.”But hey, it still comes with a cash prize. In short, his work demonstrates that banks’ failures are often a cause, not merely a consequence, of financial crises. The Nobel committee has been known to play politics (see: that time Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize after being in office for just eight months). And right now, it is using its spotlight to call attention to the high-stakes gamble playing out at central banks around the world, most notably the Fed.

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