The Nobel Foundation, which has been handing out the world's most prestigious prizes for more than a century, knows a lot of good economists. Maybe they should ask them how to make some money?

Because as it stands now, the Nobel Foundation is seriously short on cash, relatively speaking. They had a tough year in the markets, okay? What was once a high class operation is now becoming a veritable Swedish flophouse. Bloomberg reports:

The Stockholm-based institution, which earlier this month rounded off its 2013 awards, cut the prize money by 20 percent last year [to $1.23 million] in an effort to preserve capital... The institution’s cost cutting measures include spending less on the awards banquet, which takes place on Dec. 10 every year to commemorate the anniversary of Nobel’s death...

Other options include making money on the Nobel brand, such as opening more Nobel museums outside Sweden and Norway, Heikensten said.

For Chrissake, it won't be long before the Nobel Prize is a garish t-shirt reading "Nobel $ex Life YOLO" sold by a seedy street vendor at a stall in Cancun. And no, the tequila is not free, Robert Shiller. We're putting that on your bill.

The Nobel Foundation, which annually selects the greatest minds in economic sciences [update: actually the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences selects the economic prize. The Nobel Foundation has their phone number I bet], is floundering in part because it lost out on many millions of dollars in revenue last year by investing too heavily in hedge funds.

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