Risky Behavior

Yes, one should not speak ill of the dead. Today, the NYT has the obit of an award winning economist, Stephen Ross. This is notable not just because he was an economist, taught at MIT, and earned his doctorate at Harvard. A saltwater economist. No, what is notable is that the obit lauds him for his bad news quant theory. Not that most in the profession consider what he did a bad thing. Econ has been on a quant jag for decades.

Professor Ross relished marshaling complex theories honed in the academic world and applying them to Wall Street, where they could be used to address practical problems. His contributions to the finance industry earned him the Deutsche Bank Prize in Financial Economics in 2015.

Jürgen Fitschen, a co-chief executive of Deutsche Bank at the time, said in a statement that Professor Ross's work was the "foundation for all the risk-factor models we use today."

Of course, the use of exotic derivatives were what brought down the world in 2008. And, we now know, that Deutsche Bank got caught washing Russian rubles, provided Kim Jong-Don lots of moolah, and fueled the Great Recession.

I wonder if one can posthumously return an award?

Risky Business?? Where's Scientology when you really need it?