I have written before in this blog about the McLean/Nocera book, ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE.
It is a fine book, and I continue to re-read bits of it and discover new points.
Two quick ones today.
1) In their chapter 13, "The Wrap," the authors discuss AIG-FP, the financial products division of the vast insurance company AIG, and its contribution to the crisis. They introduce us to a fellow named Al Frost, who marketed credit default swaps (CDS) for AIG-FP.
After making this introduction, they mention that various CDS' held by AIG-FP included collateral triggers, i.e. contract clauses that allowed "counterparties to demand that AIG put up ... cold, hard cash -- if certain events took place."
Then there is this masterpiece of concision, in which Frost is allowed to hang himself.
"It is hard to know for sure if these triggers were there from the start. Frost ran his department like a little fiefdom; he tended to impart information on a need-to-know basis. (Through his attorney, Frost denies that he didn't talk freely about what was going on in his business.)"
Am I the only one who has chuckled at that?
2) Also in chapter 13, the authors briefly mention Gary Gorton, a Yale economist hired by AIG-FP to develop their risk models. His models obligingly told the division what everyone there wanted to hear, that the triggers weren't at all risky.
Gorton is mentioned again, much later, in chapter 16, about Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. "Yale economist Gary Gorton -- the game man who did risk modeling for AIG-FP -- explains the repo market this way...."
That wasn't a typo. Or at least it wasn't my typo. They don't write that this is the "same man" mentioned earlier. He is the "game man." I imagine him telling his AIG-FP acquaintances: "Yes, I'll create a model that suits your desired conclusions. I'm game!"
I suspect this isn't their typo either, that it is a deliberate play on the two words. But hey, what do I know? I'm just the game man who keeps reading their book.
Showing posts with label Yale University. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yale University. Show all posts
28 October 2011
20 February 2010
Zachery Kouwe
The latest case of looking over the shoulders of the guy in the desk in front of you involves Zachery Kouwe, a New York Times business reporter who has plagiarized shamelessly.
The paper in an editors' note on Valentines Day didn't use the p word, but it did say the editors had found "cases of extensive overlap between passages in Mr. Kouwe’s articles and other news organizations’. (The search did not turn up any indications that the articles were inaccurate.)"
Personally, I am always more saddened by reporters who copy the work of their colleagues than I am by reporters who make stuff up, Stephen-Glass style. I am more put off, you might say, by the inadequacy of imagination than by its excess. Staying true to the facts, while finding a fresh way to express them, that is always the double challenge of the non-fiction writer in general.
Not long ago it was fashionable to talk about the "death of the author." That was a literary-critical theory born on the left bank of the Seine, yet later nurtured under the shade of the elms lining the streets of New Haven, Conn. It taught that when properly deconstructred by clever critics, all texts refer to other texts -- indeed, all texts merge into one big text. Authors just disappear from the account.
Fortunately, the author seems to have been resurrected, even in academia. Now it is even more important than before that Paschal-event that authors, of all sorts, respect their own calling and that of their colleagues.
Kouwe was immediately suspended and then, on Tuesday (Mardi Gras -- two days after the Valentines Day announcement -- should we be drawing some sort of symbolic conclusions from these intruding holidays?) met with editors and union reps to discuss possible disciplinary action. Apparently, Kouwe decided to save them the trouble of further proceedings and resigned.
You can find particulars here.
The paper in an editors' note on Valentines Day didn't use the p word, but it did say the editors had found "cases of extensive overlap between passages in Mr. Kouwe’s articles and other news organizations’. (The search did not turn up any indications that the articles were inaccurate.)"
Personally, I am always more saddened by reporters who copy the work of their colleagues than I am by reporters who make stuff up, Stephen-Glass style. I am more put off, you might say, by the inadequacy of imagination than by its excess. Staying true to the facts, while finding a fresh way to express them, that is always the double challenge of the non-fiction writer in general.
Not long ago it was fashionable to talk about the "death of the author." That was a literary-critical theory born on the left bank of the Seine, yet later nurtured under the shade of the elms lining the streets of New Haven, Conn. It taught that when properly deconstructred by clever critics, all texts refer to other texts -- indeed, all texts merge into one big text. Authors just disappear from the account.
Fortunately, the author seems to have been resurrected, even in academia. Now it is even more important than before that Paschal-event that authors, of all sorts, respect their own calling and that of their colleagues.
Kouwe was immediately suspended and then, on Tuesday (Mardi Gras -- two days after the Valentines Day announcement -- should we be drawing some sort of symbolic conclusions from these intruding holidays?) met with editors and union reps to discuss possible disciplinary action. Apparently, Kouwe decided to save them the trouble of further proceedings and resigned.
You can find particulars here.
21 September 2008
Tony Blair at Yale
The former prime minister of Great Britain, Tony Blair, is now a Roman Catholic.
That's old news? Well, maybe. But here's something a bit newer: he's also now a lecturer on religion at Yale University.
It's a part time gig. He'll deliver five lectures a year for three years, in return for a nominal fee and a donation to his foundation.
In his honor, then, here's a quotation from The Varieties of Religious Experience, on the appeal of the Church of Rome.
"To intellectual Catholics many of the antiquated beliefs and practices to which the Church gives countenance are, if taken literally, as childish as they are to Protestants. But they are childish in the pleasing sense of 'child-like,' -- innocent and amiable, and worthy to be smiled on in consideration of the undeveloped condition of the dear people's intellects. To the Protestant, on the contrary, they are childish in the sense of being idiotic falsehoods. He must stamp out their delivate and lovable redundancy, leaving the Catholic to shudder at his literalness."
That's old news? Well, maybe. But here's something a bit newer: he's also now a lecturer on religion at Yale University.
It's a part time gig. He'll deliver five lectures a year for three years, in return for a nominal fee and a donation to his foundation.
In his honor, then, here's a quotation from The Varieties of Religious Experience, on the appeal of the Church of Rome.
"To intellectual Catholics many of the antiquated beliefs and practices to which the Church gives countenance are, if taken literally, as childish as they are to Protestants. But they are childish in the pleasing sense of 'child-like,' -- innocent and amiable, and worthy to be smiled on in consideration of the undeveloped condition of the dear people's intellects. To the Protestant, on the contrary, they are childish in the sense of being idiotic falsehoods. He must stamp out their delivate and lovable redundancy, leaving the Catholic to shudder at his literalness."
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