Serious People, Acting Unseriously

Courtesy of Paul Krugman's blog, a very silly paper written in the 1970's analyzing the economics of interstellar trade, written by, well, Mr. Krugman himself. It's quite amusing, although maybe not quite as amusing as it thinks itself. My favorite two lines:

It should be noted that, while the subject of this paper is silly, the analysis does make sense. This paper, then, is a serious analysis of a ridiculous subject, which is of course the opposite of what is usual in economics.

Then it (the [Trantorian] merchant) may have in its mind (or equivalent organ) a series of transactions of the following kind.