Robert Mundell

Jan 17, 2007

The first day of this semester. I went to Mundell's office to pick up reference letters for a friend. We had a very casual talk. Six years ago during the Asia crisis, he learned a joke in Indonesia which involved the Chinese leader. Then he told this joke in Guangdong, Shanghai and Beijing, respectively. By observing how the local people responded, he differentiated the three cities. Amazingly his opinion is pretty much consistent to the common impression Chinese people had.

He was born in 1932 and has a reputation telling jokes on TV.