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"It is not something that makes you stand out here," laughed the great American economist Edmund Phelps.

The 83-year-old director of the Center on Capitalism and Society at Columbia University was talking after an interview I did with him at the China Development Forum at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing.

He was actually referring to being a Nobel prizewinner. I dare not hazard to guess how many there were at the forum - often referred to now as the Chinese Davos - because I would almost certainly underestimate the actual number.