Tag Archives | CDO
radioactive_warning

Stress Testing: A Reminder from Fukushima

March 17, 2011

The eyes of the world are on Fukushima, Japan, where heroic technicians and military personnel struggle to prevent a nuclear armageddon. A massive earthquake spawned a devastating tsunami that knocked out a nuclear power plant’s cooling system. And here we are. This reminds us how low-probability high-impact events tend to be correlated. If a country experiences prolonged draught, [...]

goldman_ethics

“Savvy” as a Substitute for “Ethical”

July 15, 2010

The SEC just announced that Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay $550 million to settle charges of defrauding investors through sales of collateralized debt obligations. Not surprisingly, Goldman’s stock surged on the announcement. Can you believe this? What is more, the firm’s corporate and institutional clients have not abandoned it as the sordid findings of [...]

modeling

Don’t Blame the Modelers

October 4, 2008

With the markets in turmoil, I have little time to comment publicly, and breaking through to be heard above the clatter is all but impossible. Reporters seeking sound bites don’t help. From: Tansy Harcourt To: Glyn Holton Sent: October 1, 2008 Subject: Consulting Hi Glyn, I’m a journalist in Australia for the Australian Financial Review. [...]

exhibit_12_10_2007

Benford’s Law

December 10, 2007

Benford’s Law is a fascinating theorem from statistics that states, for most forms of data, the leading digits of numbers are not uniformly distributed among 1 through 9. Instead, any given data point has a 30.1% probability of having a 1 as its leading digit. There is a 17.6% probability of the leading digit being [...]

toxic_waste

Hedge Funds: Who’ll Take the Toxic Waste?

August 10, 2007

Long before Mark Twain stood on Wall Street and saw it was a “street with a river at one end and a graveyard at the other,” there has been financial manipulation and scams. During the Punic Wars against Carthage, businessmen offered to ship supplies to Rome’s army on condition the state insured their ships and [...]