Robert Shiller, of Southfield High School’s graduating Class of 1963, received the Nobel Prize in Economics in October.

He has impressive credentials; his book, Irrational Exuberance, published in 2000, made The New York Times best-seller list. Shiller, a Yale professor of Economics, predicted the collapse of the real estate market in 2005 and warned of the stock market bubble in the 1990s.

Of all of Shiller’s notable published works, his first publication ever was in his high school newspaper, The Southfield Jay, an essay written on the theme of love in the writing style of the Renaissance-Era philosopher Sir Francis Bacon. The following is an excerpt from that publication:

“For if a man argues with fire, there underneath is something burning. Whereupon it is clear that such love of soul is important. What reason, therefore, have we to assume it does not exist?”

He now writes a column in The New York Times for the Sunday Business Section. From his article “What a Recession Feels Like,” here is a portion of the columnist’s work:

A recession has much the same pattern as the flu — starting with vague feelings of malaise and quickly building in misery until a patient’s activities are drastically curtailed. Then, all too gradually, comes an extended period of recovery, accompanied by lingering symptoms of discomfort.

Shiller says, “I tell my colleagues at the New York Times that I got my start in a school newspaper, and even though I have become a college professor, news is still in my blood.”

During his high school career, he was a member of the debate team. “I guess that shaped my thinking too. I get into debate situations fairly often now, in conferences and on stage. I got my start at SHS, for sure” he says.

Shiller was selected as one of Bloomberg’s 50 Most Influential People in Global Finance in 2011. In the years 2009 and 2010 he was chosen as one of Foreign Policy’s Top 100 Global Thinkers. He is also a member of the Academic Advisory Panel for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Of the plethora of his achievements, he says he is most proud of all the students that he has taught over the years.