There are no grounds, based on history, for assuring the laureates constitute a unique population of the very best in science; even less so, to impute to them, as a class, the status of genius … The oft-repeated claim that the prize's prestige has reflected the skill of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in picking the right winners simply does not hold up to inspection.

Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, loc. 457