Maurice Allais

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Maurice Allais (born May 31, 1911 in Paris, France) is a well-known economist, and was the 1988 winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics "for his pioneering contributions to the theory of markets and efficient utilization of resources". His academic and non-academic posts have included being Professor of Economics at the École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris (since 1944) and Director of its Economic Analysis Centre (since 1946).

As an economist he made contributions to decision theory, monetary policy and other areas, but his name is particularly associated with what is commonly known as the Allais paradox, a decision problem he first presented in 1953 which contradicts expected utility theory.

As a an attempt to contribute in physics, he made two controversial claims in relation to gravitational anomalies:

The Allais effect first reported in 1954 was the result of anomalous readings of a paraconical pendulum during two separate eclipse events. Initially this was thought to be a gravitational shielding effect inconsistent with general relativity but other conventional interpretations take precedence in mainstream physics.
More recently Dr. Allais performed a statistical analysis of the thousands of interferometer measurements of Dayton Miller and found a corresponding periodicity with the sidereal day, the equinoxes and other celestial events thus invalidating the Robert S. Shankland refutation of Miller's work. This analysis, if confirmed, either casts doubt on the second postulate of Special Relativity or opens possibilities for expansion of the theory.

Modern precision experiments have continually verified the results brought into question by Miller, discounting his repeated attempts and discounting Allais' analysis. [1] [2] [3]

[edit] Notable quotes

"In essence, the present creation of money, out of nothing by the banking system, is similar - I do not hesitate to say it in order to make people clearly realize what is at stake here - to the creation of money by counterfeiters, so rightly condemned by law."