Austerity reaches the Nobel Prizes

The board of directors of the Nobel Foundation has announced a cut in the prize money to be awarded to 2012 laureates in view of bad investment decisions in the past and to safeguard the economic base of the prestigious prizes. At its meeting this week, the board set the amount of the 2012 Nobel Prizes at Swedish Krona 8.0 million per prize, amounting to a lowering of the prize sum by 20 per cent.

"The Nobel Foundation regards this as a necessary measure in order to avoid an undermining of its capital in a long-term perspective...Another part of the picture is that during the past decade, the average return on the Foundation's capital has fallen short of the overall sum of all Nobel Prizes and operating expenses", the Foundation said in a press release...

The costs of the Nobel Foundation's central administration and the Nobel festivities are also being reviewed.

From Rediff News.