The recent Nobel Prizes in economics have been a succession of gifts to economic history. Three years ago, it was Ben Bernanke, with an enormously influential doctoral thesis on monetary policy during the Great Depression that was the foundation for the expansionary policies that enabled a rapid exit from the Great Recession. This is one of the cases in which the study of the past and its improved understanding have allowed for the deployment of better monetary policies in the present. Bernanke himself was responsible for steering the Federal Reserve through some of its worst moments, minimizing the impact of the crisis and preventing it from becoming a new Great Depression. Two years ago, we had Claudia Goldin, who has studied the improvement of female education in the United States since the 19th century and has been able to document how women entered the labor market, how they achieved improved wages, and why pay inequalities persisted. One year ago, Daron Acemoglu, James A. Robinson, and Simon Johnson welcomed her to explain how institutions are formed and how they affect the prosperity of countries. This year, half of the prize went to Joel Mokyr for explaining the technological prerequisites for sustained economic growth. The other half—Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt—has championed a concept as dynamic and unsettling as "creative destruction," a Schumpeterian concept: another nod to the classics of economic history.

The shakeup at Renfe's top management has become even more evident this week: the company has renewed the leadership of its two main subsidiaries, the one that deals with passengers and the one that deals with freight transport. The company has decided to dispense with the current head of passenger services, Rafael Cortés, who had only held the position for nine months. It has also appointed a new freight director, Imanol Leza, to cover the interim period that began in February when Joaquín del Moral, the director of recent years, was dismissed.