Professor Krugman walked on stage in a suit. He was holding a stack of papers in his hand.
This seminar was supposed to be done by Xiao Tong, but because she had no experience talking at large conferences, she wouldn’t have been able to convey her brother’s research results correctly to the economics community.
Actually, it didn’t matter who did the report.
Because she had already made up her mind.
Professor Krugman looked at the quiet audience. He then cleared his throat and spoke.
“I’m sure many of you here today had the chance to witness the report yesterday.
“Professor Joseph made a comprehensive analysis of the Lu Bewley model, and even though there were some misunderstandings, those misunderstandings were corrected.
“I have nothing to add in regard to the Lu Bewley model. In fact, I shouldn’t be the one standing here; instead, it should’ve been Professor Lu.”
There was a commotion in the crowd.
“What is Professor Krugman talking about?”
“Did Professor Lu do something again?”
“If I recall correctly, this report should be about the application of the Lu Bewley model in macroeconomics.”
“Looks like Professor Krugman made a last-minute change and gave up on the paper he was originally planning to publish… Is he planning on presenting Professor Lu’s new research?”
Professor Krugman looked at the noisy crowd and cleared his throat, signaling the audience to stop talking.
When the lecture hall became quiet again, he spoke in a clear voice.
“Yesterday afternoon, Professor Lu made some adjustments to his research, and he left us with an improved version of the Lu Bewley model.
“Some people might be doubtful of what he was able to achieve in just one short afternoon. In fact, I was also suspicious…
“Until I read his paper.”
A lot of people in the lecture hall looked shocked.
Except for those who were in the lecture hall yesterday, because they knew that Lu Zhou was able to create the Lu Bewley model in just one hour.
Professor Krugman paused for a second and looked at Professor Joseph, who was sitting in the front row. He then looked at the audience and spoke.
“I am about to show you the improved version of the Lu Bewley model.
“Please listen carefully.”
…
With his back turned toward the audience, Professor Krugman wrote on the whiteboard with a marker in his hand. He wrote down a detailed summary of the Lu Bewley model to the best of his abilities.
Even though the formulas on the whiteboard were only the tip of the iceberg, many mathematically inclined scholars sitting here could clearly see the improvements Lu Zhou made to the Lu Bewley model.
This was a kind of academic intuition.
It was something accumulated from years of researching macroeconomics.
Professor Joseph was one of them.
He was listening and watching carefully, and he was both surprised and relieved.
He finally believed that Lu Zhou wasn’t kidding.
The fact that Lu Zhou was able to do this all in one afternoon proved that his mathematical abilities were far beyond anyone else…
And it wasn’t just his mathematics ability.
His ability to apply mathematics to other fields was also unparalleled!
I’m afraid that even John Nash wouldn’t have been able to do something like this…
“Mathematics is changing science…” Professor Joseph said as he stared at the formulas on the whiteboard. He smiled and said, “He’s the apex predator of scholars…
“He’s actually quite humble for how strong he is.”
He’s not just changing science.
He’s redefining science!
He’s redefining everyone’s understanding of mathematical economics…
Professor Krugman, who was standing on stage, stopped writing.
He looked at the paper in his hand and compared it with the content on the whiteboard. After making sure there were no mistakes, he turned around and faced the audience.
“Does anyone have any questions?”
The audience was dead silent, and no one raised their hand.
Professor Krugman looked at the silent audience and was convinced he made himself very clear.
“Okay then…”
He was about to put down the marker, but someone suddenly raised their hand.
“Wait a second.”
Everyone turned their attention toward the young scholar, who blushed with embarrassment as he spoke.
“I don’t have a question, but regarding this model… What is its name? It should be different from the original Lu Bewley model, right?”
This was quite a crucial question.
There was a lot of discussion going on in the lecture hall.
Professor Krugman paused for a second.
Lu Zhou didn’t give this model a name…
Just like how the original Lu Bewley model was named by other scholars, not Lu Zhou himself.
It seems like Professor Lu isn’t enthusiastic about naming economics research results after himself.
Professor Krugman smiled and thought carefully for a while. He cleared his throat and spoke.
“Should we add Joseph to it? After all, Professor Lu himself admitted that he was inspired by Professor Joseph’s report—”
Halfway through his sentence, he was interrupted.
“I don’t deserve it.”
Professor Joseph, who was sitting in the front row of the lecture hall, suddenly stood up and said, “Also, I don’t want to be cited as a counterexample of being wrong, I don’t deserve to receive credit for this model.”
“Oh, that’s not what I meant.” Professor Krugman hastily said, “This is just to differentiate between the two models.”
The old man stared at the whiteboard for a while.
Finally, he spoke.
“I think we can all see that the improved Lu Bewley model has deviated from the framework of the Bewley model.
“This new model is a more flexible, operable economics model.
“Therefore, I propose for it to have a completely new name… The L-Z model.”
There was a commotion in the crowd.
The scholars sitting in the lecture hall nodded their heads in agreement.
Some scholars weren’t sure of this name, so they began to think about something.
Professor Angus nodded with approval.
Angus said, “It seems like yesterday’s event made a huge impact on Joseph… I’m not in the position to make a judgment, but I think Joseph deserves to be commemorated.”
Wisl, who was sitting next to Professor Angus, was totally confused.
He couldn’t help but ask out of curiosity, “Professor Angus… What happened yesterday?”
“You weren’t here?” Professor Angus said, “Oh yeah, you weren’t able to come.”
Wisl gulped and said, “What happened?”
“Nothing, it’s just unfortunate that you missed out on an exciting macroeconomics seminar.”
Professor Angus looked at the regretful PhD student as he smiled and said, “It was probably the most exciting seminar of the year.”
